Taliban officials accused President Bill Clinton of insulting Islam after he criticized the regime’s brutal repression of women in Afghanistan. Clinton has promised not to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s official government until women’s rights are restored.
A statement issued by the Taliban’s foreign ministry stated “the Taliban are following Islamic law and international law does not allow any country to criticize Afghanistan’s Islamic culture” and accused President Clinton of “engaging in propaganda.”
In Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan, women are banned from working, attending school, and from leaving their homes without a close male relative as a chaperone. Women are unable to get adequate medical treatment, and many suffer from severe depression.
The Taliban has also decreed that the windows of houses in which women live must be painted an opaque color so that men will not catch a glimpse of them while passing by. Women who disobey the Taliban’s laws are publicly beaten. Prior to the Taliban’s hostile takeover, women held jobs, attended universities, and traveled freely.
Video: President Clinton on Afghan Women
