Women in Afghanistan were brutally repressed under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 – but a series of fascinating old photographs show how women there used to live freely.

The Taliban were condemned around the world for their treatment of women.

Under their rule women were forbidden to be educated, publicly beaten for showing disobedience and forced to wear burqas – a garment that covers the whole body, apart from the eyes.

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Women browse in a Kabul record store

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Women in a biology class at Kabul University

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2543902/Photos-just-free-women-Afghanistan-Taliban-rule.html#ixzz2r96TKbvN

You should distinguish between upper-middle-class Kabul (say 10,000 people maximum) and the rest of the population. Also the tribal moraes of the differing groups.

When I was working in southern Iran it was normal to see women from the lower strata wearing the chadoor (a flowing head-covering, held in place by gripping the selvedge with one's teeth). The upper classes wore Western clothing, but the Qashqai (nomads) roamed the whole of the south on their camels - the women having very bright clothes, some with turbans, but all with their faces completely open to view. Many with bright blue eyes.

And thinking of the upper-middles - I remember we were passing one very nice house when the lady of the house came out in her Chanel suit, opened the driver's door of her Mercedes, turned round, spat in the gutter, got in and drove away. Tres, tres elegante.

Yes indeed compare Tehran and Kabul of the 60's and 70's with now and you can see how far things have regressed. Here is an interesting article which puts the blame for the rise in Islamism to Western moral decadence brought about by liberal permissiveness. Not that this in any way excuses the Islamists or gives them any moral high ground, it is interesting nonetheless.

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/126099/sec_id/126099

It is no exaggeration to say that the whole leftist response to the Islamist threat is loaded with irony. So, for example, whilst they profess to be the side most anxious to find reasons as to “why they hate us,” they are also the side most resolutely determined to ignore those reasons. There exists an almost surreal refusal on the part of the left to look at the facts or to even listen to a word the Islamists say, preferring instead to put into the minds of the Islamists concerns which are entirely their own.

I couldn't have put it any better if I tried.