The culture history of Afghanistan

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Taliban Declares Harshest Ever Mass Censorship Campaign
Feminist Majority Foundation, The New York Times, 10 July 1998. The Taliban Minister for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue in Afghanistan declared that all television sets, videocassette recorders, videotapes and satellite dishes must be removed. The communications ban comes at a time when human rights and women's rights activists in the west have stirred political opposition to the Taliban's severe oppression of its citizens.
Afghan Schools on Verge of Collapse
By Thalif Deen, IPS, 29 December 1998. Afghanistan's educational system, battered by nearly 20 years of warfare, is on the verge of collapse. Under the present rigidly Islamic Taliban regime, Afghanistan has virtually barred girls from schools and female teachers from working. The adult literacy rate is 47 percent for men and 15 percent for women.
Taleban ban communal bathing
BBC News Online, 13 August 2000. The ruling Taleban authorities in Afghanistan have closed all the communal bathhouses for men in the capital, Kabul. The Taleban say hygiene as well as modesty was suffering, and the baths will be converted into individual cubicles. Women's bathhouses were closed in 1996, when the Taleban took over Kabul.
Lost treasures of Kabul
By Luke Harding, The Guardian, 17 November 2000. Afghanistan's national museum used to house one of the world's most precious collections. Today it stands empty—its windows blown out, its contents pillaged. So where are the missing artefacts? Afghanistan's civil war swallowed up the country's history.
Have fun in Afghanistan? Enjoy the weather...
By Siddharth Varadarajan, The Times of India, 25 March 2001. Though having fun-or just living what the average Afghan considers to be a normal life-can entail serious risks, people here have not abandoned their love for music and films. Officially, you can enjoy the weather and sports.