Their concept of Islam makes difficult the type of compromise that would ease working relations with the international assistance community or achieve a negotiated settlement to Afghanistan's conflict. The Taliban's discrimination against women, opposing their rights to employment, education, and health care, and their harassment of men with hair and beards that do not conform to prescribed Taliban norms, are particularly felt in these cities. The Taliban appear to spend most of their time and energy in a determined effort to win a military victory over their opponents in northern Afghanistan. Despite these setbacks, the Taliban continue to recruit fresh fighters for another attempt. The front lines of the fighting are only 25 km north of Kabul, which is under a Taliban-imposed nighttime curfew.
All international organizations have well-rehearsed plans for evacuating the city.
Humanitarian air missions, either for administrative purposes or transport of relief goods, are sometimes unable to use Kabul airport because of insecurity. Relief flights are often diverted to an airstrip near Gardez, considerably south of Kabul. Meanwhile, the opposition Northern Alliance is having great difficulty staying united. In November 1997, Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostom drew public attention to mass graves thought to contain the bodies of some 2,000 Taliban militia presumed to have been slaughtered by his rival Uzbek warlord, General Abdul Malik, thus making rapprochement between the two warlords difficult at best. Ethnic Tajik Afghans, under former president Mohammed Rabbani and Ahmed Shah Masood, are for the moment isolated and probably biding their time in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul.