MULLAH Rabbani, head of the six-member Taliban governing council, stopped women from the western media from attending his first press conference even though they had covered their heads. He also banned photography, condemning it as un-Islamic.
While men have been ordered to grow beards, the Taliban decree banning women from work meant there were far fewer women on the streets the next day. This in a nation that, till 1992, had women going to work in skirts. Later, in the face of protests, the Taliban council decreed that women who had been deprived of their livelihood would get their wages as usual, but would have to stay at home. According to Western media reports, in Herat nurses are exempt from this but can treat only female patients; significantly, women cannot become doctors despite the fact that male doctors cannot attend to women. And the closure of girls schools has spawned a new business: underground teaching institutions.
The bazaars were open, and the prices had come down for essential items since the four major routes to Pakistan were reopened. The West fears that the supply of opium from Afghanistan might increase, though the Taliban consider its use as un-Islamic.
