Taliban restrictions and mistreatment of women included the following:
1) Complete ban on women's work outside the home, which also applied to
female teachers, engineers, and most [other] professionals. (Only a few
female doctors and nurses were allowed to work in some hospitals in Kabul.)
2) Complete ban on women's activity outside the home unless accompanied
by a mahram (a close male relative, such as a father, brother, or husband).
3) Ban on women dealing with male shopkeepers.
4) Ban on women being treated by male doctors.
5) Ban on women studying at schools, universities, or any other educational
institution. The Taliban converted girls' schools into [madrassas for boys].
6) Requirement for women to wear a long veil (burqa), which covered them
from head to toe.
7) Women not clothed in accordance with Taliban rules, or [found] traveling
unaccompanied by a mahram, were subjected to beating and verbal abuse.
8.) Whipping of women in public for having non-covered ankles.
9) Public stoning of women accused of having sex outside marriage.
10) Ban on the use of cosmetics. (Many women with painted nails
have had their fingers cut off).
11) Ban on women talking or shaking hands with non-mahram males.
12) Ban on women laughing loudly. (No stranger should hear a woman's voice.)
13) Ban on women wearing high heel shoes, which would produce sound
while walking. (A man must not hear a woman's footsteps.)
14) Ban on women riding in a taxi without a mahram.
15) Ban on women's presence at public gatherings, on radio, or on television.
16) Ban on women playing sports, or even entering a sports centre or club.
17) Ban on women riding bicycles or motorcycles, even with their mahrams.
18) Ban on women wearing brightly colored clothes. In Taliban terms,
these were 'sexually - attracting colours'.
19) Ban on women gathering for festive occasions such as the Eids,
or for any recreational purpose.
20) Ban on women washing clothes in public places, or next to rivers.
21) Modification of all place names which included the word 'women'.
For example, 'women's garden' has been renamed 'spring garden'.
22) Ban on women appearing on the balconies of their apartments or houses.
23) Compulsory painting of all windows, so that women cannot be seen
from outside their homes.
24) Ban on male tailors taking women's measurements, or sewing women's clothes.
25) Ban on female public baths.
26) Ban on males and females traveling on the same bus. Public buses were designated 'males only', or 'females only'.
27) Ban on flared pants, even under a burqa.
28) Ban on the photographing or filming of women.
29) Ban on women's pictures printed in newspapers and books,
or hung on the walls of houses and shops.
now i can't believe my eyes.
