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MINGORA: When the Taliban took control here in February and forced women into burqas, an epidemic of clumsiness swept this city. Women began
banging into lamp posts. Nurses fumbled needles. Many stopped going out altogether.
Now the Taliban are mostly gone, driven out by a military operation this summer, and the women of this Pakistani city, the largest in the Swat Valley, are returning to public life. Teachers are back at work, maids are commuting to jobs across town and nurses are giving injections without having to squint through a coarse layer of netting.
When the Taliban fled, our burqas went with them, said Shahin Begum, 40, a school teacher. Women were the main targets of the Talibans morals police, and once that rigid rule was imposed their lives froze. They were barred from going to shopping areas, and anyone who worked in a public place, including hospitals, was required to wear a burqa, a sacklike, head-to-toe garment with netting over the eyes.
I felt like I was out of air, said Zaida Bibi, a maid in a green shawl with flowers. Now, she said, it still feels like a delicious act of revenge to walk into Cheena Market, a maze of stalls full of cosmetics, dresses and shoes that was forbidden under the Taliban. Its a free, light feeling, she said
banging into lamp posts. Nurses fumbled needles. Many stopped going out altogether.
Now the Taliban are mostly gone, driven out by a military operation this summer, and the women of this Pakistani city, the largest in the Swat Valley, are returning to public life. Teachers are back at work, maids are commuting to jobs across town and nurses are giving injections without having to squint through a coarse layer of netting.
When the Taliban fled, our burqas went with them, said Shahin Begum, 40, a school teacher. Women were the main targets of the Talibans morals police, and once that rigid rule was imposed their lives froze. They were barred from going to shopping areas, and anyone who worked in a public place, including hospitals, was required to wear a burqa, a sacklike, head-to-toe garment with netting over the eyes.
I felt like I was out of air, said Zaida Bibi, a maid in a green shawl with flowers. Now, she said, it still feels like a delicious act of revenge to walk into Cheena Market, a maze of stalls full of cosmetics, dresses and shoes that was forbidden under the Taliban. Its a free, light feeling, she said
