It's not strictly gender-related, but this is an excellent meditation on democracy and the coming war: Imagining the Next War: Infrastructural Warfare and the Conditions of Democracy by Phil Agre.

It was tough to find one on the web, but I did manage to turn up a pro-Taliban article: The Taliban and Women: Lifting the Veil of Propaganda.

Women in Islam is a page of links from the same perspective, including Veil: View from the Inside by a woman, raised in the West, who decided to cross over to a fundamentalist Islamic life.

Buried Alive: Women Under the Taliban

The Taliban's War on Women: A Health and Human Rights Crisis in Afghanistan, an executive summary from Physicians for Human Rights

A photo gallery from PHR physician Zohra Rasekh

The situation in a nutshell, from NOW Foundation

Women and Girls in Afghanistan, a fact sheet from the US State Department

Still No Place for the Ladies, a 5/29/2000 article from CNN.com

Women in Afghanistan, a statement by Theresa Loar, Senior Coordinator for International Women's Issues, State Department

Understanding the Taliban is a Crucial Task, a moderate Muslim perspective

Try to plan to watch CNN's broadcast of "Beneath the Veil," a documentary of life under the Taliban filmed by a journalist smuggled into the country by members of RAWA (see the previous posting). It'll be broadcast this Sunday at 1 a.m., 4 p.m., and 11 p.m.

Beneath the Veil

A few links to Afghan women's associations:

The Afghan Women's Mission

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghan (RAWA)

RAWA photo gallery

I've decided to collect links that explore the connection between the attacks of September 11th and the fundamentalist, patriarchal regimes that inspired them, especially by examining the plight of women in these countries. Here's what I've found today, both from Salon.com:

Terror's first victims

The Taliban's bravest opponents