made their teaching aids out of scraps found around the house (Goodwin 110). Ms Goodwin interviewed a woman who wished to remain nameless, yet had started a school for female children, illegally, in her home. She felt that her only way to rebel against the Taliban was to do so for the sake of the children deprived of education (Goodwin 110). Ms. Goodwin quoted her as saying: “I’m scared about what I’m doing but it’s the only way I can fight back” (110). According to this nameless woman, even the children as young as six years old understand the danger of opposing the Taliban and the consequences that would befall their teacher if the wrong person learned of their illicit schooling (Goodwin 110). It is sad that the pupils have become the outlawed teachers, imparting the small knowledge given to them before the Taliban called education to an end. Perhaps someday education will be attainable for women. 4 It is commonly held that Islamic woman should wear the hajib (the scarf covering the head and neck) or the burqa (full body and face covering) as a sign of her faith, yet no group has ever before made it mandatory and punished dissent like the Taliban. Peter Marsden, author of The Taliban, stated that the Taliban have been more extreme than any other in requiring that women’s faces be covered (91). The requirement that the burqa be worn has imposed many constraints on the average Muslim family. When the Taliban banned women entering the workforce, they took away half the economy of many families. “The imposition of the burqa has placed an additional financial burden on...families at a time when the economy has been deteriorating” (Marsden 91). The Taliban does not hesitate to beat a woman caught without the burqa, or even if some of her skin shows beneath it, say should a breeze catch it and blow it around her ankles. “The practice of the Taliban of beating women with sticks...has had ...
