the burka (a head-to-toe garment allowing limited vision from a lace mask); wearing shoes that click or using makeup; leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative; attending school or working (except for a few doctors and nurses); and speaking to men who were not close relatives (Time 39). Women were also required to paint the windows of their homes black so that males passing by could not see their unveiled faces.
Women who did not follow these mandates found that they were subject to being beaten on the streets and in their own homes by husbands, males in their family, and total strangers as well as the religious police (Time 34). Thrupkaew (18) pointed out that religious police under the Taliban roamed the streets wielding metal cables that were used regularly to beat, often severely, women found to be violating any of these rules. Prostitution was punishable by hanging, while adultery was punished with stoning. A woman who wore nail polish could expect to have the tip of her finger cut off. The Taliban claimed that such laws were not intended to brutalize women, but rather to "keep them safe" (Thrupkaew 18).
Reports of the lengths to which the Taliban went in their effort to cow and frighten women were also provided by Anna Mulrine (32). One woman named Laila told Mulrine (32) that she often saw women beaten with bicycle chains in the streets for walking too fast, while widows lacking a source of support were forced to become beggars when they were forbidden to work. At one time a medical student, Laila was confined to her home by the Taliban and forbidden to attend school; she began to tutor her neighbor's daughters, but when the Taliban discovered her home school, she was beaten in front of the children and told that if she persisted in her activities, she would be killed. The children were then told that if they returned to school û because education was forbidden to females over age 8 û they would be burned alive.<...