Yeah, funny how that was going on for years and years, but only mattered after 9/11...
Well, no matter...
Do you remember why the Taliban originally got control of Afghanistan? It was because the warlords, who took over after the Russians withdrew, behaved like thugs, and women were raped and otherwise mistreated not because they disobeyed the religious police, but because the guys in charge thought it was fun. The Taliban started out on a "law and order" ticket. Then they got carried away by their own ideology.
Remind you of anything more familiar?
I hope the Afghanis are on a less extreme course. Of course, the people in charge are the people who were in charge before, so we'll have to wait and see if they learned anything in the interim.
Regards--
Mary Anne