That would consolidate their very strict Islamic rule of the country. But much of the world is repelled by this government, especially its treatment of women, and refuses to accept its legitimacy without substantial change. The Taleban, eager for international recognition and economic help, must now weigh religious conviction against societal needs. From Kabul, he gives us an inside look at Afghanistan's people and their problems. The zoo in Kabul is all but empty.
Children cluster around the cages of a few deer and wolves.
In grand isolation, a blind lion sits staring into space, the victim of a soldier's grenade. The decline, it is agreed, began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. It aroused a fierce, united and ultimately successful Afghan resistance. But the war continued after the Soviet withdrawal, as various Afghan commanders fought among themselves, in the process destroying much of Kabul. Backed and armed by Pakistan, they have now won control of almost the entire country, with resistance waning in the northeast.