If the Taleban go ahead with the new rules, aid agencies will face a dilemma. They will be torn between the need to protect staff and their commitment to help Afghans struggling with war and drought. The news comes as the religious police raided the central hospital in the city of Herat - the fifth such raid in a month. People said the police wanted to make sure doctors and patients beards were untrimmed and their hair was cut according to the Taleban's regulations. They said medical staff resisted and it is reported they beat the religious police back.
Unconfirmed reports say two patients died as the doctors attention was turned elsewhere.
Medical staff have complained directly to the Taleban governor, Khairullah Khairkhwa, who reportedly condemned the raid. List of pledges It is part of a pattern, said one foreign aid worker, of the Taleban clamping down on working conditions in the humanitarian sector. A letter leaked to the BBC and an aid agency suggested they are proposing to ask foreign workers to sign a long list of pledges or leave the country. Among the pledges the foreigners will have to make are not to meet Afghan women, not to take photographs, drink alcohol or eat pork. Foreigners would also have to agree to the Islamic Sharia punishment for adultery.