The Taliban have apparently been fighting for the institutionalization of the Muslim Sharia law, imposing extremist views on the population. These militants and religious fundamentalists forced ‘their ultraconservative brand of Islam in and around the Swat.’ In the process, they have also been ‘displacing centuries-old traditions,’ as claimed by the Pashtuns.
One of the aspects that [...]

The battle and battle ground has finally shifted officially but the war seems to be far from over. As American troops began withdrawing from cities of Iraq one cannot stop wondering whether this is indeed the beginning of the end of a war that America had declared against terrorism.
The end however is nowhere in sight [...]

In Nimroz, a Taliban-controlled province in Afghanistan, an eloping couple was publicly executed in front of a mosque. The local religious leaders said that the couple’s action runs against a religious decree, and was an ‘insult to Islam.’ The couple attempted to elope and run to Iran because their families disapproved their marriage plans.
Taliban mullahs [...]

Sometimes called “the last permissible prejudice,” homophobia reifies social ideas of gender, and ultimately reinforces inequality in society. Homophobia is an even worse and extreme case of sexism. If sexism is imprisoned in the strict confines of sex and gender stereotypes, homophobia sees these already warped stereotypes in an acute and even more distorted way.
Homophobia [...]