The Taliban Islamic militia has, since their takeover of the government, implemented a strict Islamic rule. This includes closing girls schools, banning women from public, and forcing them to cover themselves from head to toe in veils that cover them, all of which leaves them in a darkness of shun. Men are required to grow beards and comply with the Islamic law of praying five times a day. Now, there is one man sitting at the top of the government - Maulana Muhammed Umar, who runs the government from his estate in Kandahar. He never leaves the estate, but still creates his own version of Islamic Afghanistan from within. This causes a strict implementation of law which affects the daily lives of men, women, and children across the Communist nation of Afghanistan.

It is especially hard for women. They must veil themselves with a shroud-like veil called a burqa, leaving only a small slit for them to see out of. Women can be pulled off of busses (or any other location) and beaten if not properly dressed. They are supposed to cover themselves from head to toe. Even their feet must be silenced. They must walk unheard in their tents so as not to distract the men. They must take a male relative into public to speak to the shopkeepers for them, as they are prohibited to speak for themselves, in the interest of not "exciting" the men by speaking. Their homes have windows that are painted wherever a woman is present, so they can never be seen by the outside world. Women of high intelligence, carrying Ph.D.'s, in the profession of doctors, lawyers, artists, and writers have been forced from their jobs and stuck inside their homes, with no outside light, wearing clothing that envelope them in darkness, walking and working in silence, and living in fear. These women must survive this torture if they are to live in this Islamic State.

The result is widespread depression, and a high suicide rate. Those without a male relative to accompany them in public either starve or go out into the streets begging for food. Men can mean either life or death over their female relatives, and Afghanistan is becoming a highly male-dominated society. It is more than just a human rights violation; it is a hellish nightmare.

The children of Afghanistan are one of the country's only hopes. But these children are also being denied education, they are being coerced into a world where little boys are growing up considering themselves bearing more power than women, considering themselves Communists. Girls are only receiving an education in some parts from the age four through eight, just enough to help them to read Islam's holy book, the Koran. This is being considered all a cultural way, something that is a part of men, women, and children's culture that outsiders could never understand or never change. But it is not something women have been accustomed to for long, it is not yet something they can call their culture, for they are retreating to death rather than living the life of being shunned from the world. For not many years ago, women worked as professionals, they walked the streets openly with the freedom of human beings.

Has there ever been a society in which women were shunned from the outside world at the extent of this? How can women bear to live in this society; what keeps the women that still exist alive? For many it is their families. Their children. Women live in Afghanistan dedicated to their children, raising them and giving them the best education they can, the best upbringing possible. Who knows what they will have to live with when they are older, but in them there is a small flame of hope that lights the hearts of the many parents who love them.