The realization that women had potential and were capable of things other than bringing up children was beginning to enlighten minds at the grassroots level of a traditionally conservative society. With the coming to power of the Islamic fundamentalists, the wheel of history has really been turned back hundreds of years. Oppression and discrimination against women are worldwide phenomena, as is women's struggle for their rights, but in Afghanistan, women's struggle for their equal set of rights is too extravagant to be considered. Under the fundamentalists, women have to struggle to be recognized as human beings. Hatred of women is a principle of this Islamic fundamentalism.
Women are fit only for household slavery and as a means of procreation.
With the coming to power of the Taliban, such an outrageous view has, incredibly, been elevated to the status of official policy. In the fundamentalist infighting of the past eight years, women have been looked upon as war booty, their bodies another battleground. Women have been the prime victims wherever Islamic fundamentalists have come to power. Women of all ages, even grandmothers of 70, have been gang-raped. Fundamentalist domination has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of prostitutes and beggars.