KabulThe city became the capital of Afghanistan during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani, the second Afghan emir, in 1776. is a bustling city, with all the noisy tumult you would expect from such a place: the roar of traffic, honking of horns, haggling in busy marketplaces, happy chatter, shrieks of playing children. But from now on one sound will not take its place in the cacophony: the sound of women talking.

Last week the TalibanA violent fundamentalist Islamic movement that enforces sharia law and denies education to women., which rules Afghanistan, put out a new set of "viceImmoral or unjustifiable behaviour. and virtueA good moral quality. " laws. They state that women may not speak in public, or in parts of their home where they might be heard from outside.

They will be required to cover their whole body in thick clothing and banned from looking directly at men outside their family.¹

The Taliban has previously banned women from attending secondary school, working in most jobs, walking in public parks, and going to gyms and beauty salons. However, these new laws are the most stringentVery strict. yet. They seek to wipe out any trace of women in the public sphere.

What has stunned many is the pace of change. Just two years ago, women in Afghanistan were getting a full education, working in the public eye and leading their own lives. Now those same women face what some experts call "gender apartheidA system of legally-enshrined racial discrimination and oppression which existed in South Africa from 1948 until the 1990s. It denied non-white South Africans basic human rights.", forcing them back into the home.²

For some it recalls Margaret AtwoodCanadian novelist whose best-known book is The Handmaid's Tale.'s famous work The Handmaid's Tale, in which Christian extremists take over the USA and immediately ban women from working, then enslave them to men.

They fear the USA may shortly follow the Taliban. In recent years, US evangelicalsA worldwide interdenominational Protestant movement that stresses the power of faith. In many places, it is associated with social conservatism. have become ever more radicalised.

For decades they lobbied for an end to the constitutionalRelating to the constitution, a document that sets out the fundamental rules according to which a country is governed, which are usually difficult to change. right to abortion. Now many are agitating for a nationwide ban on the procedure. Some even want to ban contraceptionDevices, medication or behaviour that prevents pregnancy. .

Activists for women's rights say this amounts to an attack on women's participation in public life. Like in The Handmaid's Tale, they would exist only to bear children.

Many experts say there are important similarities between the US and Afghanistan. The real danger, they say, is not theocraticRelating to a system of government based on a single religion. extremists imposing their religious worldview on everyone else. It is the corroding effect of deep-rooted, intricate social conflicts.

The Taliban actually subscribe to the HanafiA school of thought in Sunni Islam, based on the writings of the Imam Abu Hanifa. It is one of the more open schools of thought. school of Islamic thought, which is one of the most liberal. The group's views on virtue and vice stem more from its origins in the Pashtun ethnic group, which is traditionally deeply patriarchal.⁴

Many of their opponents are more liberal TajiksA Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group. Most Tajiks live in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. , who resent the imposition of traditional Pashtun norms on everyone else.

Taliban fighters also often come from ruralRelating to the countryside rather than the town. areas, where traditional values hold strong. They have long felt that national governments whose support base is in liberal urban areas have been eroding their way of life.

They are now doing the reverse: using their military power to enforce their own conservative norms on more liberal urban areas.

There are lessons in this for the USA, which is also deeply divided between urban and rural. Americans living in rural areas are overwhelmingly likely to be religious, conservative and RepublicanSomebody who supports the idea of a country having an elected head of state, such as a president, rather than a hereditary king or queen.-voting. In contrast, urban areas are generally very liberal.⁵ Each one feels the other is trying to impose their own values on the whole country.

Rather than a coup by religious extremists, they should worry about managing the deep divides between ethnic groups and between city and country.

Could Trump's America go the same way?

Yes: Many fear Trump has plans to seize control of the entire executive branch. That would give him sweeping powers to impose restrictions on women before anyone has a chance to mobilise against them.

No: The US is a much more liberal place than Afghanistan, and most voters oppose sweeping restrictions on women's lives. That is why even Trump himself has disavowed the evangelical programme.

Or... The US is unlikely to see the sudden reversal in women's rights we have seen in Afghanistan. However, Republican governments will continue to chip away at them.

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