The kerosene lamp on the floor sputters. The sisters are overwhelmed by sinister thoughts. One might as well contemplate them in advance.
No Admission to Heaven
When the Taliban rolled into Kabul in September 1996, sixteen decrees were broadcast on Radio Sharia. A new era had begun.
1. Prohibition against female exposure.
It is prohibited for drivers to pick up women not
wearing the burka, on pain of arrest. If such women are
observed out on the streets, their homes will be visited
and their husbands punished. If the women wear inciting
or attractive clothes, and they have no close male
relative with them, the driver must not let them into the
car.
2. Prohibition against music.
Cassettes and music are forbidden in shops, hotels,
vehicles and rickshaws. If a music 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 driver imprisoned.
3. Prohibition against shaving.
Anyone who has shaved off or cut his beard will be
imprisoned until the beard has grown to the length of a
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 fifteen minutes
before the time of prayer. It is obligatory to go to the
mosque during the time of prayer. Any young men
seen in shops will automatically be imprisoned.
5. Prohibition against the rearing of pigeons and bird-fighting.
This hobby will cease. Pigeons used for the purpose of games or fights will be killed.
6. Eradication of narcotics and the users thereof.
Abusers of narcotics will be imprisoned, and
investigations will be instigated to flush out dealer and
shop. The shop will be closed and both criminals, user
and owner, will be imprisoned and punished.
7. Prohibition against kite-flying.
Kite-flying has wicked consequences, such as
gambling, death amongst children and truancy.
Shops selling kites will be removed.
8. Prohibition against reproduction of 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.
Centres 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.
The above 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 river embankments.
Women who break this law will be respectfully picked
up in the manner of Islam, taken to their house and
their husbands will be severely 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 religious oligarchy will decide the appropriate
punishment for anyone caught playing drums.
15. Prohibition against tailors sewing women’s clothes or taking 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 burnt and the
magicians will be imprisoned until they repent.
In addition to the above sixteen decrees, a separate appeal, aimed at Kabul ’s women, was broadcast:
Women, you must not leave your homes. If you do, you must not be like those women who wore fashionable clothes and make-up and exposed themselves to every man, before Islam came to the country.
Islam is a religion of deliverance and it has decided that a certain dignity belongs to women. Women must not make it possible to attract the attention of evil people who look lustfully upon them. A woman’s responsibility is to bring up and gather her family together and attend to food and clothes. If women need to leave the house they must cover themselves up according to the law of Sharia. If women dress fashionably, wear ornamented, tight, seductive clothes to show off, they will be damned by the Islam Sharia and can never expect to go to heaven. They will be threatened, investigated and severely punished by the religious police, as will the head of the family. The religious police have a duty and responsibility to combat these social problems and will continue their efforts until this evil is uprooted.
Allahu akbar – God is great.
Billowing, Fluttering, Winding
She loses sight of her all the time. The billowing burka merges with every other billowing burka. Sky-blue everywhere. She glances at the ground. In the mud she can distinguish the dirty shoes from other dirty shoes. She can see the trimming on the white trousers and catch a glimpse of the edge of the purple dress worn over them. She walks round the bazaar, looking down, following the fluttering burka. A heavily pregnant burka comes panting and puffing by. She is desperately trying to keep up with the energetic pace of the two leading burkas.
The lead burka has stopped near the bed-linen counter. She feels the material and tries to gauge the colour through the grille. She bargains through the grille, whilst dark eyes can only just be seen, dimly behind the lattice. The burka haggles, arms waving in the air. The nose pokes through the folds like a beak. At last she makes up her mind, gropes for her bag and reaches out a hand with some blue banknotes. The bed-linen seller measures up white bed-linen with pale blue flowers. The material disappears into the bag under the burka.
The smell of saffron, garlic, dried pepper and fresh pakora penetrates the stiff material and mingles with sweat, breath and the smell of strong soap. The nylon material is so dense that one can smell one’s own breathing.
They float on, to the cheap Russian-made aluminium teapots. Feel, bargain, haggle, and accept. The teapot too disappears under the burka, which is now overflowing with pots and pans, rugs and brushes and is growing ever larger. Behind the first come two less determined burkas. They stop and smell, feel plastic buckles and gold-coloured bracelets, before looking for the lead burka. She has stopped by a cart brimming with bras, all jumbled together. They are white, pale yellow or pink, of a dubious cut. Some hang on a pole and wave shamelessly in the wind. The burka fingers them and measures with her hand. Both hands emerge from the folds, they check the elastic, pull the cups, and with a visual estimate she settles on a powerful corset-like contraption.
They walk on, and weave around with their heads in all directions to see better. Burka-women are like horses with blinkers, they can only look in one direction. Where the eye narrows the grille stops and thick material takes its place; impossible to glance sideways. The whole head must turn; another trick by the burka-inventor: a man must know what his wife is looking at.
After a bit of head rotating the other two find the lead burka in the narrow alleyways of the bazaar’s interior. She is assessing lace edging. Thick, synthetic lace, like Soviet-style curtain borders. She spends a long time on the lace. This purchase is so important that she flips the front piece over her head in order to see better and defies her future husband’s command about not being seen. It is difficult to assess lace from behind a gauze grille. Only the stall vendor sees her face. Even in Kabul ’s cool mountain air it is covered in beads of sweat. Shakila rocks her head to and fro, smiles roguishly and laughs, she haggles, yes, she even flirts. Under the sky-blue one can detect her coquettish game. She has been doing it all along, and the vendor can decipher the moods of a waving, nodding, billowing burka with ease. She can flirt with her little finger, with a foot, with the movement of a hand. Shakila swathes her face in lace, which is suddenly transformed from curtain edging to lace for the veil, the remaining item for the wedding dress. Of course the white veil needs lace edging. The bargain is struck, the vendor measures, Shakila smiles and the lace disappears into the bag under the burka, which again drops to the ground, as it should. The sisters wriggle further into the bazaar, the alleyways get narrower and narrower.