Taliban's prohibition on girls' education
The Taliban's prohibition on girls' education is one of the most consequential and devastating policies of their 1996–2001 rule in Kabul, codified in a written decree and enforced by armed patrols. It shuts down all schools for girls, bans women from working, and confines women to their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. The rule is grounded in the Taliban's interpretation of Shari'a and is part of a broader system of gender-based restrictions that includes mandatory burqa, bans on cosmetics and jewelry, and public beatings for violations. The prohibition directly shapes the lives of the novel's female characters, forcing Laila to send her daughter Aziza to an orphanage and driving Mariam and Laila's desperate escape attempt. It also fuels the clandestine teaching at the orphanage run by Zaman, who risks punishment to educate the children in secret.
Codification and Enforcement
The prohibition was announced in a series of decrees broadcast by the Taliban's radio station, the Voice of Shari'a, and distributed as flyers tossed into the streets. One such flyer, found by Mariam in her yard, listed the new laws in blunt, numbered commands: "Girls are forbidden from attending school. All schools for girls will be closed immediately" and "Women are forbidden from working." The decrees also mandated that women "stay inside your homes at all times" and, if they went outside, be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative. Violations were punished with beatings, and the decrees were enforced by armed Taliban patrols who roamed the streets in Toyota trucks, looking for infractions. The prohibition was part of a comprehensive system of gender apartheid that also forbade women from showing their faces, wearing cosmetics or jewelry, laughing in public, or making eye contact with men.
Impact on Laila and Aziza
The prohibition directly devastates Laila's family. After the fire destroys Rasheed's shoe shop and the family descends into poverty, Laila is forced to send her daughter Aziza to an orphanage because she cannot feed her. The orphanage director, Zaman, explains that the Taliban's ban on women working has created a flood of mothers who "can't feed their children because the Taliban won't let them go out and make a living." Laila's own attempts to visit Aziza at the orphanage become a harrowing ordeal: she is repeatedly stopped by Taliban patrols, questioned about why she is alone, and beaten with wooden clubs, fresh tree branches, whips, and even a radio antenna. One young Talib warns her, "I see you again, I'll beat you until your mother's milk leaks out of your bones." To cushion the beatings, Laila takes to wearing extra layers—two or three sweaters beneath her burqa—even in the heat.
Clandestine Resistance at the Orphanage
Despite the prohibition, Zaman runs a secret school inside the orphanage. He teaches the children reading, writing, geography, history, and science, but the lessons must be hidden. Aziza tells Laila, "We have to pull the curtains, so the Taliban don't see us." Zaman keeps knitting needles and balls of yarn ready; if the Taliban conduct an inspection, "We put the books away and pretend to knit." The children learn about tectonic plates, transpiration, and the scattering of blue light by oxygen atoms—knowledge that is forbidden under the regime. Laila wonders what the Taliban would do to Zaman if they found out, but the lessons continue, a small act of defiance against the sweeping ban.
Broader Context and Legacy
The prohibition on girls' education is rooted in the Taliban's interpretation of Shari'a and their view of women's roles. Rasheed, who supports the Taliban, tells Laila that the policy is not radical but reflects how many parts of Afghanistan have always lived. Laila, however, remembers the freedoms women had under the communist regime (1978–1992), when women studied law, medicine, and engineering at Kabul University, and she bitterly contrasts that with the Taliban's decrees. The prohibition also echoes the patriarchal attitudes that have shaped the lives of both Mariam and Laila long before the Taliban came to power. Mariam's mother Nana taught her that "a man's accusing finger always finds a woman," and Rasheed's own rule—that "a woman's face is her husband's business only"—prefigures the Taliban's restrictions. The prohibition is thus not an isolated policy but the culmination of a long history of gender oppression in Afghanistan, one that the novel's female characters endure, resist, and ultimately survive.
