The politics of post-Taliban Afghanistan still need to be sorted out. And many of the mujahedin fighters who sent the Taliban running are almost as devout as the vanquished mullahs–meaning they’ve never heard of Betty Friedan. But freedom, even in measured doses, still feels like freedom. Especially to many Afghan women, who for half a decade suffered some of the most stifling repression imposed on women anywhere in the world. Forbidden to work or show their faces, many were cloistered at home for years. Now Afghan women are venturing into public again–and looking for work. Last week at least four women got jobs at Radio Afghanistan, and others continued to stop by the radio station to apply. “When I heard the Taliban was finished I rejoiced beyond measure,” said Rida Azimi, 25, one of the first women to read the news at Radio Afghanistan after the Taliban fled. At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, as soon as she heard about the Taliban’s defeat, Azimi joyously burned her burqa at home. “I felt so depressed wearing the veil,” she said. “Now I see the sunlight and it’s so beautiful.”
Most women are still waiting–and wearing their veils. They want to see if Northern Alliance representatives manage to stabilize their control of urban areas and convince residents that they’re serious about women’s liberation. “We are planning to make an announcement about our policies,” said a Northern Alliance Foreign Ministry spokesman. “Women aren’t working in the government yet because we haven’t set up our government offices yet. But they will come.”
So the women of Kabul reveled in small freedoms. One named Latifa, who sported lipstick and dyed auburn hair, has run a clandestine beauty parlor in her home for five years. She secretly styled women’s hair, applied makeup (the burqa’s one advantage is that it hid subversive mascara) and played forbidden music cassettes and videotapes for women who lounged on sofas covered in leopard-print material in her living room. (“Rambo” was a favorite movie.) Last week Latifa was in such high spirits about the Taliban’s departure that she washed a female NEWSWEEK correspondent’s hair in her primitive bathroom and refused payment. “Our conditions are very poor. This is still a ‘Taliban style’ beauty salon,” she acknowledged. “But in a month or two I’ll be one of the first to open a beauty shop in public. I hope you and other Western women will come.”
