You would never know of course. They have to wear the burqa, the veil that covers them from head to toe in a blue tent with tiny slits for the eyes. From inside the women peer out at a misogynist world. On the streets the men saunter, while the women hurry like blue ghosts. With our TV camera and our smooth white skins we are the strangest of strangers here.
People stop and stare.
Cup after cup of sweet green tea and a pleasant conversation on a spectacular rug with three senior commanders, leaning against red velvet cushions. Mass exodus I feel as if I'm on the Grand Tour. Even Shariah law, explained to me by the Governor of Herat in almost poetic language, is mesmerising. It has the naive unreality of all utopias. Kite flying, music, poetry, the pursuit of beauty, in fact all the things which this city was once famous for are banned as evil temptations and distractions from the study of Islam.