Long before September 11, 2001, the world community was aware that under the rule of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the situation of women was at best dire and at worst intolerable. Deborah Ellis (10) reported in March 2001 in a series of interviews she conducted with women living under the oppressive and brutal Taliban regime, that what was revealed was a story so horrifying and so terrible that it is difficult to understand why the civilized world allowed the Taliban to remain in power. This report will examine the conditions imposed upon women by the Taliban during their tenure û thankfully ended û and will argue that the distorted version of Islam practiced by this group was focused in many ways upon the containment and abuse of women, who were victims of what Noy Thrupkaew (18) calls "gender apartheid."
The Taliban existed, it would appear, to establish a complex system of rules and regulations based loosely upon their own interpretation of the Quran and to ensure that a "pure" and "holy" society would be created in those parts of Afghanistan that they controlled (Time 35). All members of society, regardless of gender, were subject to the constant oversight (in public and even in private) of the forces and representatives of the Taliban "Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice." Banned or declared unclean for men, women and children were: consuming pork, pig oil and lobster; attending movies or owning phonographs; owning or watching television, satellite dishes, and VCRs', owning pet pigeons, sewing catalogues, pool tables, or firecrackers; having a computer or accessing the Internet; and singing, dancing, flying a kite, playing chess, clapping at a sporting event, or participating in "anything that propagates sex and is full of music (Time 39). Banned only for women were even more things: speaking or laughing loudly; riding bicycles or motorcycles; showing ankles or appearing unveiled by...