Posted on 11/11/2001 7:30:12 AM PST by McGruff
Afghans queued at barber shops to shave their beards, music blared from shops and women threw off the head-to-toe burqa veil as Mazar-i-Sharif, the first city taken from the Taliban, escaped their draconian rules, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said on Sunday.
The entry of opposition Northern Alliance forces late on Friday ended the grip of the feared Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice -- better known as the religious police -- whose job was to implement harsh rules regarded by the Taliban as embodying the purest form of Islam.
In streets patrolled now by uniformed Northern Alliance fighters, men with beards they have not been allowed to trim for years lined up to shave them off, the Pakistan-based AIP said.
The strains of music played from shops, which were previously only allowed to sell religious chants or martial songs, AIP quoted residents of the city as saying.
Under the Taliban, a man who trimmed his beard could face arrest and several weeks in jail while his beard grew back.
The playing of music brought the penalty of a public lashing, audio cassettes were smashed and the tapes fluttered from telegraph posts in most cities.
In Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday, songs accompanied by the long-banned instrumentalist backing were playing in restaurants and shops, AIP said.
The Taliban had banned music, deeming it un-Islamic and vulgar and not in keeping with their ideal of setting up the world's purest Muslim state based on a 1,300-year-old Islamic Utopia.
WOMEN COME OUT
Women began to appear on the streets without the concealment of the all-enveloping burqa mandated by the Taliban, AIP said.
But many residents were apprehensive that members of the majority ethnic Pashtun tribe could face reprisals from the Northern Alliance -- composed mainly of minority Uzbeks and Tajiks, AIP said.
The Taliban rules had included bans on lipstick, television, neckties, playing cards and music -- other than religious songs and chants.
But even in the southern city of Kandahar, powerbase of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, a sight unseen for more than five years had appeared on the streets in recent weeks -- shops selling music cassettes and even CDs.
Witnesses say the religious police have virtually disappeared there after the ministry building in Kandahar was the target of several U.S. bombs last month.
Television and photographs are banned as part of the Taliban's campaign to create its pure Muslim state. Under that system, iconography is banned and reproduction of images of people and animals falls into that category.
The Taliban believe their rules are based on Islam, but they often seem more rooted in traditions of the Pashtun tribes where the movement finds its main strength.
A ban on Western dress and a demand that men -- even schoolboys -- wear turbans has been justified as a tradition of Mohammad
Then we should supply the north afghan people with arms, or sell them to them cheap. An armed populace will be able to resist any future encroachments by the Taliban. Besides, it's the American way.
But al-Jazeera, not to mention Osama's videotaped appearances, are okay?
Can you say "hypocrite", boys and girls? I knew you could....
A most excellent point!
Afghans queued at barber shops to shave their beards, music blared from shops and women threw off the head-to-toe burqa veil as Mazar-i-Sharif, the first city taken from the Taliban, escaped their draconian rules, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said on Sunday.
ROCK THE CASBAH!
ROCK THE CASBAH
(THE CLASH)
Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a' cruisnin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille
CHORUS
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail
CHORUS
Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive
CHORUS
The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way
As soon as the shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare
As soon as the shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed
CHORUS
He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.
Yeah, and how about all of those posters of OBL (including Evil Bert!) that the Muslims from around the world carry around as if he were the mahdi (Islamic messiah) or some god?!!! Hmmm? Morons! In OBL's latest interview, he admitted that he watches world news reports on TV and radio. (I'll bet that he and his slimey followers sneak a look at Bay Watch every now and then.) Muslim fanatics make me sick.
Well, my family and I are off to San Francisco for the Veterans Day parade. That ought to take my mind off of the Towliban hypocrites.
Cheers.
You got that right.
Is it possible that the day of "The Ugly American" is ending?
They are talking about Afghan women right? 8-)
LOL! Afghan people to Bush: Send more bombs!
??? What's wrong with goat cheese, or carmel candy made with goat's milk for that matter? My daughter, the lawyer, makes a great easy stuffed pita that features goat cheese.
You should not discriminate against the victims of Taliban and Al-Qaeda lust, it's not their fault. Just don't take your Taliwacker friends to the Dairly Goat section at the state fair, they'd probably think it was some kind of bordello, and since dairy goats have rather large..well you know, they'd probably lose all control and embarass you.
I'll bet there would be some great Burma-Shave signs outta this.
This means that today in Mazar... well, of course, it's already tomorrow there, I guess. But anyway, TODAY, some of the women, and I hope ALL of the women, got to feel the SUNSHINE on their faces, got to BREATH outdoors without cloth covering their noses and mouths making it not only hot but miserable, got to SEE the sun and sky and EVERYTHING around them without having to look thru those horrid little holes poked in their burkas!!! I am OVERJOYED for them! I hope it was a beautiful day there-tho somehow- I don't really think the weather would have mattered much compared to the freedom and joy they must have felt!!!
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