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Article: The Taliban, women, and the Hegelian private sphere *.(Part III: individual, family, community, and state)
- Article from:
- Social Research
- Article date:
- September 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 New School for Social Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE society created by the Taliban in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 constantly evoked outrage and reactions of open-mouthed disbelief in the Western press. Even the ayatollahs in Tehran issued a statement condemning the Taliban for defaming Islam by confusing it with medieval obscurantism. Since the Islamic Republic of Iran had long been called "medieval" itself by political opponents, this criticism of the Afghan government has a delicious irony. One key to comprehending the somewhat strident bewilderment that the Taliban provoked in many observers is their reconfiguration of the public and the private in their quest for a pure Islamic countermodernity. I use the ...