Although all Afghan people were placed under severe new restrictions by the Taliban government, no group endured stricter rules than women and girls. So harsh were these restrictions, in fact, that the Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that monitors the treatment of citizens, noted in 1998 that they were unprecedented. "We are not aware of any place in the world in recent history," stated executive director Leonard Rubenstein, "where women have so systematically been deprived of every opportunity to survive in the society—from working to getting an education, to walking on the street, to getting health care."

Women Before the Taliban

As is true in many nations, Afghanistan has a history of repressing women, especially in the southern Pashtun areas where the culture is conservative. In these regions, men have always been the decision makers who have total control of...