We invaded Afganistan why?

By Alan Linda | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Alan Linda

As with any other religion, Muslims also have many different layers of belief. Without a doubt, the Taliban is the extremist layer. Without saying anything more, here are the decrees that were posted in 1996, when the Taliban took over Kabul.

1. Prohibition against female exposure: Women must wear the burka, a hooded, veiled garment. Women not wearing it and seen on the streets will be taken home and their husband punished.

2. Prohibition against music: Cassettes and music are forbidden in shops, hotels, vehicles, and rickshaws. If a cassette is found in a shop, the owner will be imprisoned and the shop closed. If a cassette is found in a vehicle, the vehicle will be impounded and the owner imprisoned.

3. Prohibition against men shaving: Anyone who has shaved or cut off his beard will be imprisoned until the beard is as long as the owner's clenched fist.

4. Mandatory prayer: Prayer will be observed at fixed times in all districts. The exact time will be announced by the Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and the Extermination of Sin. All transport must cease 15 minutes before the time of prayer. It is obligatory to go to the mosque during the time of prayer. Any one seen in the shops during this time will be imprisoned.

5. Prohibition against the rearing of pigeons and fighting birds: This hobby will cease. Pigeons used for the purpose of games or fights will be killed and their owners imprisoned.

6. Eradication of narcotics and the users thereof: Abusers of narcotics will be imprisoned, and investigations will be instigated to flush out dealers and shops. Both dealers and owners of shops involved will be imprisoned.

7. Prohibition against kite flying: Kite flying has wicked consequences, such as gambling, death among children and truancy. Shops selling kites will be removed.

8. Prohibition against pictures: In vehicles, shops, houses, hotels, and other places, pictures and portraits must be removed. Proprietors must destroy all pictures in the above-mentioned places. Vehicles with pictures of living creatures will be stopped.

9. Prohibition against gambling: Centers of gambling will be flushed out and the gamblers will be imprisoned for one month.

10. Prohibition against British and American hairstyles: Men with long hair will be arrested and taken to the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Extermination of Sin to have their hair cut. The criminal will pay the barber.

11. Prohibition against interest on loans, exchange charges and charges on transactions: These three types of money changing are forbidden by Islam. If the rules are broken, the criminal will be imprisoned for a lengthy period.

12. Prohibition against the washing of clothes by rivers: Women who break this law will be respectfully picked up in the manner of Islam and taken to their houses, and their husbands will be punished.

13. Prohibition against music and dancing at weddings: If this prohibition is broken, the head of the family will be arrested and punished.

14. Prohibition against playing drums: The religion’s oligarchy will decide the appropriate punishment for anyone caught playing drums.

15. Prohibition against tailors sewing women's clothes or taking the measurements of women: If fashion magazines are found in the shop, the tailor will be imprisoned.

16. Prohibition against witchcraft: all books dealing with the subject will be burned and the magicians will be imprisoned until they repent.

Another directive was also published: Women, you must not leave your homes. If you do, you must not be like those women who wear fashionable clothes and makeup and expose themselves to every man around. Islam is a religion of deliverance, and a certain dignity belongs to women, who must make it impossible to attract the attention of evil people who would look lustfully upon them.

Women who need to leave the house must cover themselves up according to the law. If women dress fashionably or otherwise wear ornamented clothing to show off, they will be damned by the law, and can never expect to go to heaven.

They will be investigated and severely punished by the religious police, as will the head of the family. Religious police have a duty to combat these social problems and will continue until this evil is uprooted.

In Afganistan, women are hidden in the large voluminous burka. Under it, they wear baggy clothing. They always wear long trousers, even within the home. Men and women who do not belong to the same family must not sit together in the same room. They must not talk together or eat together. Even the weddings are segregated. The women make merry in a room separate from the men.

On public buses, women sit behind a curtain that separates them from others on the bus.

And we invaded this country?

Alan Linda writes from his home in New York Mills.