The non-Muslim community in Afghanistan now comprises only an estimated several thousand Hindus and Sikhs. The latter, already distinguishable by their turbans, will not have to wear tags. Hindu and Sikh women will have to veil themselves, like Afghan women, according to media reports. The Taliban have recently imposed increasingly hardline orders on Muslims. Over-zealous officials of the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Reuters reported, also checked men's beards to ensure they were at least the length of a fist.
Women risk a lashing if they reveal as much as an ankle under all-enveloping burkas.
18 May. The closure followed a raid by armed members of the religious police, who attacked staff and detained three local employees, hospital staff told the news agency. All the patients had to be discharged. The Taliban took the action because men and women had been dining in the same area, staff said. The 120-bed hospital, which only opened this year, has been closed indefinitely. The Italian ambassador to Pakistan, Gabriele de Ceglie, visited Kabul and asked the Taliban for security guarantees if and when the hospital was allowed to reopen.