This is a short article about the plight of women in Taleban controlled Afghanistan. Situations like this ask serious questions of the West ... what is the world community to do? Should we respect another country's right to treat their people as they see fit? Or should we risk accusations of Imperialistic meddling and do something to help the women there? If so, what should be done - are there any practical solutions? Or would any attempt to interfere just make things worse?
Afghanistan: Women under Taleban rule
By BBC Newsnight's Rebecca Milligan
There was outrage in the West when, in 1996, the Taleban movement took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and imposed its radical brand of Islam on the men and particularly the women of that once cosmopolitan city.
Because the Taleban has outlawed television, and photographing animals or humans is strictly forbidden, the plight of Afghan women has received little media coverage in the West.
Much of our report was compiled using hidden equipment - if the women who helped us were identified by the authorities, the consequences for them would be very serious.
In Taleban-controlled areas - about 90% of the country - women are not allowed to work; they may not leave their homes unless covered from head to toe in the burqa or chadary and accompanied by a close male relative; girls' schools have been closed.
Capital distress
The situation in Kabul is particularly bad. The Taleban is tougher on the cities which, it believes, have been contaminated by western values.
I visited a family of middle class women who now live as virtual prisoners in their tiny flat
The younger girls cannot go to school. The older women - both teachers - have no work. None of them can move around the city freely - they are in despair. The economic consequences of the ban on women working is especially evident in the capital where female beggars can be seen everywhere.
Many of them are widows, left with children to support after years of war.
Rural benefits
The situation in rural areas is different. The Taleban's rules have had less of an impact on women who have always lived within a very conservative village culture.
In some ways, the security which the Taleban has brought, has improved the lives of these women, who endured the constant threat of rape and banditry during the years of civil war.
There are some slight signs of hope. At a local level, aid agencies have been able to negotiate informal agreements for women to work and study.
I met women doctors who are able to practice. This is particularly important because the Taleban will not allow male doctors to treat female patients.
However, the agreements are informal and therefore extremely fragile. A local health official agreed to my request for an interview - the first time a member of the Taleban has been questioned on camera with a female journalist.
He repeated his movement's usual explanation: the restrictions on women are for their own protection. Things will improve when the war ends. No-one can say when that will be.
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A slightly older article from Jan 2000:
Afghanistan: Through veiled eyes
By Rebecca Milligan in Afghanistan
'Pull your scarves well over your head. Try not to be seen'. For eight hours, we had been making our way in a mini-bus to Kabul on roads which had been mashed up by tanks.
These conditions had made our progress extremely slow.
We were on our way to meet Shazzia, a 21-year-old Afghan girl who I had first met in Peshawar just over the Afghan border in Pakistan.
She had left her home in the city when the Taleban banned women's education.
She works. Her wage alone supports her whole family.
Clandestine meeting
This weekend she was going home. We had arranged to follow her to Kabul.
This would not easy. Under the Taleban, women are barely allowed out of their homes.
If we were seen visiting or even talking to them, they could be imprisoned or beaten - or even worse.
Hence, the anxiety of our translator, Abdullah. Anyone we wanted to film about the plight of women in Afghanistan had to be done secretly. They were at great risk.
I had hidden the camera and hoped that the scarves would hide most of my face and my hair.
I scrambled out of the mini bus and into a taxi - part of an elaborate plan to protect my mini-bus driver.
The Taleban could have punished him if they suspected his involvement during the undercover filming.
I sped off in the direction of a complex of old decaying Russian flats.
It was a clear, chilly morning but even the bright sunshine could not light up this bleak landscape.
The sense of desperation was heavy in the air. After the years of bombing, the area was scarred with huge gaping holes.
At last after what seemed an age, I pulled up outside Shazzia's flat.
I entered the dank stairwell. At the very top the flat, a door was open and Shazzia welcomed me with a smile.
She led me into one room where her aunt and two sisters were sitting on the floor under huge duvets.
In the middle of the room, the duvets covered what appeared to be a small table which turned out to be a heater.
"It is our only way to keep warm", Shazzia explained.
I sat down under the duvets with the women. I was made to feel welcome and offered a cup of tea.
The interview began with Shazzia's mother.
She spoke of their hardship and how she had been a teacher for many years.
Now she could not work under the Taleban. She said that most of the time she simply stayed in the flat.
Here greatest worry, she said was " my two girls". "What will they do without an education?" she asked. Shazzia had beautiful, smiling, strong brown eyes. As her mother spoke, they dulled. She had always wanted to have an education. Even though she was living in Pakistan, she could not go to college. It was because of her that her family were able to live at all.
Great risk
The longer I stayed the more risky it was for the family. Under the Taleban regime, not even neighbours can be trusted.
Informers are everywhere and get paid well. More tea and lunch was offered but we had to refuse.
As we left, Shazzia's mother handed me a burqa and a chadour and asked me to leave the building wearing them.
They are bright blue and cover a woman from head to toe, obscuring any shape she may have.
It makes it virtually impossible to see either up or down or from side to side. Under the Taleban women must wear them.
As I ran down the stairs I had a sense of what it must be like for Afghan women to wear them.
They are claustrophobic and isolating. In them you lose all sense of yourself.
Dealing with the authorities
Once I had left I had to become an official journalist. This meant going to the foreign ministry and announcing my arrival.
The Taleban officials, all in their white or black turbans, were beautifully dressed.
Some wore dark kohl eye liner. They greeted our translator warmly and shook his hand.
"So where have you travelled from today?" they asked.
"Oh, we have just arrived from Peshawar,' said our translator, smiling.
I began to say something but the Taleban official did not look at me and they certainly would not shake my hand.
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