Summary
Many of the illiberal values and practices associated with Taliban rule predated their rise to power and have survived their defeat and exile. Saudi Arabia's austere version of Islam was a major source of Talib doctrine, and Saudi-funded religious schools in Pakistan had been recruiting centers for the movement. Young Kabuli men complained of the Taliban bans on cinemas, kite-flying, and games, and of the compulsory Islamic dress code.
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Extract
The Two Afghanistans: A Veiled Culture Adapts to Modernity
In Afghanistan, every time we start any new thing, we say Bismillak al-rahman alrahim-in the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate," declared my twenty-eight-year-old friend Raz Muhammad. "In the Taliban time, there was one soldier here in Helmand who knew so little about religion he could not even learn to say the bismillah. And this person became a commander of the Taliban!"
Raz laughed at the absurdity of an Islamically illiterate gunman representing the zealous theocracy. "This was the Taliban's problem, why they made mistakes. There is nothing bad in Islam; the bad thing was in the Taliban."Few of the people I met during my months of work and travel in Afghanistan had a good word to say about the Taliban-the authoritarian movement that governed much of the country between 1994 and 2001 and that still plays a major role in an ongoing insurgency. The violence, which killed more than four thousand people last year, was unpopular for obvious reas...See the full content of this document
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