The Taliban consolidated the country’s
southern territory in 1996. In a matter of
weeks, they pushed the remaining Afghan armies, most of which supported
the minority Uzbek and Tajik cultures,
into the extreme northern valleys, where
a stalemate was reached. The Talibans
now control about 90 percent of
Afghanistan’s territory.
Having taken Kabul, the capital, the
Taliban began to impose strict Islamic
law on the country’s population. Because
of prolonged regional wars, women are a
substantial majority. Yet women are particularly affected by the Taliban decrees,
because they are denied professional work
as teachers and doctors, allowed only an
elementary school education, and required to dress in black flowing dresses
Afghanistan’s women are the topic of
with veils and scarves completely hiding
worldwide news, as Taliban leaders subtheir bodies. They are not allowed to leave
ject the Afghan society to rigorous new
the house even to shop without a male
religious restrictions.
relative in accompaniment.
Based upon strict Islamic teachings,
In other words, the intent of the Taliban
new Taliban laws have limited Afis to relegate women’s roles totally to that
ghan women’s societal roles
of homemakers. This has been particuto traditional wife, mother
larly devastating to not only professional
and homemaker. Such laws
women who have had to quit their jobs as
mean that women can no
doctors and teachers, but the widows of
longer pursue or even enAfghan soldiers who are famigage in professional careers.
CHINA lies’ sole supporters.
UZBEKISTAN
These are just a few of the
There now is increasing
TAJIKISTAN
many new restrictions on Afevidence that neighboring Iran
ghan women.
is worried about the Talibans.
Human rights organizations veAllegedly, the Talibans recently
TURKMENISTAN
hemently object to these restrictions
executed several Iranian diploon Afghan women’s rights, bringmats in northern Afghanistan,
ing a fire storm of world criticism
leading Iran to mass 200,000 solKabul
upon the fundamentalist Taliban
diers along the Afghan border.
AFGHANISTAN
government. Other Middle East
Pressure by fundamencountries also have expressed contalist Pakistani Islamists, allegcern about Taliban doctrines, but
edly related to the Taliban movetheir governments may be less conment, recently resulted in Pakicerned about women’s rights than
stan adopting more strict Islamic
IRAN
about the spread of the Taliban’s
law. This move is a major conbrand of strict Islam.
cern of the Pakistani middle
PAKISTAN
Afghanistan is a huge country of
class, in general, and women, in
250,000 square miles (647,500 sq.
particular, who see the possible
Under Taliman Control
km.), larger than Spain and Portuoutcome as cultural and ecoINDIA
? Contested Control
gal combined. Its landscape is
nomic repression.
hauntingly beautiful, with broad
200 Miles
Women’s rights in Afdesert basins separated by tall
ghanistan will be a likely topic
mountain ranges.
throughout U.S. classrooms, as
Gulf of Oman
Such terrain has encouraged culstudents wrestle with the meanmaps.com ©2000 ing of human rights as a current
tural isolation and independence
of spirit. Although major east-west trade
world issue.
The Taliban originated as a group of
routes historically crossed northern AfAnd that is Geography in the News,
religious students from the Pathan region
ghanistan, most of the rural, pastoral AfOctober 29, 1998.
of southeast Afghanistan. Forming inighans developed their own cultures with
tially as a fighting force against the Sovi(The author is a professor of geography at
little influence from the outside.
ets, they quickly filled the vacuum during
Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.)
The exception was the rise of Islam
the infighting that followed the Soviet’s
#454
between A.D. 610 and 632, which rapidly
withdrawal.
AFGHANISTAN’S
SILENT
MAJORITY
spread eastward from Mecca on the Arabian peninsula. By the early A.D. 700s,
missionaries, traders, soldiers and nomads had brought Islam to Afghanistan,
and it quickly became the dominant religion.
Afghanistan’s population is composed
of more than 20 different ethnic groups,
most having distinctively different languages and cultural traditions. The three
largest are the Pathans (Pushtuns), whose
traditional homeland is in the south and
southeast near Pakistan’s border, and the
Tajiks and Uzbeks, mostly located in the
north.
The Pathans have long been the most
powerful group in Afghan politics. As a
culture originating in some of
Afghanistan’s most isolated basins, the
Pathans have never been conquered and
are among the world’s most intractable
and militantly independent cultures. It
was the Pathans who led the fight to expel
the invading Soviet forces in 1989, just
one of numerous unsuccessful Afghanistan invaders, including Alexander
the Great of Macedonia, the Turks,
Indians, Mongols, Persians and
British.
?
© 2000 maps.com
?