Afghan Women Still Under Strict Rule

HERAT, Afghanistan, Dec. 16, 2001, (AP) - The prosecutor reads the charges: leaving your husband and spending the night in another man's home. The suspect rises from the floor.

``No one touched me, not even my hand,'' Gol pleads. ``I swear there was nothing improper.''

Not according to the stern Islamic code of justice in Afghanistan, where she could receive up to several months in prison for leaving her husband without permission. If adultery is proven, she could face death.

The demise of the Taliban freed Afghanistan from five years of severely restrictive social regulation. But a deeply conservative version of sharia, or Islamic law, still guides the legal system during a time when some women are testing the new boundaries of society.

``We had sharia before the Taliban corrupted it. We will continue with it. The West helped us defeat the Taliban, but they will not dictate the laws we live by,'' said Noor Mohammad, general prosecutor in the western city of Herat.

The Taliban were seen by many around the world as warriors of an ultra-puritanical brand of Islam that found evil everywhere: jobs for women, schooling for girls, men without beards, television, music, non-Islamic art, kite-flying. The shroud-like burqa for women became one of the most recognized symbols of their rule.

The Taliban's collapse cast off some restrictions for women. A traditional chador, which shows the face, is now acceptable. Women can appear in public without a male relative as escort, which was required under the Taliban.

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