The Taliban's decrees concerning women result practically in their total exclusion from public life, by theoretically forbidding them, in towns, to work outside of their homes. This has led to the unemployment of tens of thousands of female workers, professionals and associates of international organisations. Consequently, this has made more difficult the lives of widows, of whom there are more than 50,000 in the capital alone.

Until 1996, before the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul, 60 % of the state administration staff were women, who for the most part worked in subordinate positions. Yet, the strict measures currently in place affect men as much as women, as it is the husbands who are fined, beaten or imprisonned if the law is broken. This illustrates how the Taliban regime insists upon the responsibilities of men in controlling the behaviour of women. The concept of total separation of the sexes has been first extended also to hospital care, where there is a completely segregated medical system. Society as a whole suffers the knock-on effect of a regime which, while providing security for people's lives and property, forcibly imposes a moral Utopia, without providing a solution to the general impoverishment caused by devastations and under-development.

The Taliban order, firmly rooted in an extremely narrow interpretation of the "chariat" religious law, is is part of a broad-based, systematic project affecting society as a whole. The Taliban deny that the laws they impose are detrimental to the women and that they deprive them of their rights. On the contrary, they maintain that they are rebuilding those rights via a strict application of the "chariat", and are reconstructing the proper relationship between men and women. Its supporters proclaim they are working to uphold the honour of women, their rights and dignity.

What are these rights? What are the fundamental aspects of women's position in society according to Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan? His doctrine is based first on a particular concept of the nature of women, which is then the basis of the division of tasks and responsibilities. According to Mullah Omar, ""God Almighty created man and woman differently, so that they might fulfill distinct roles on this Earth. A proverb states that domestic work is the responsibility of women, while the outside world belongs to the warriors".

Speech given at the "Armed Men, Hardened Women" conference, Geneva, University Institute of Development Studies, 23-24 January 2001.