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CNN Live At Daybreak

Women Still Wearing Burkas in Kabul

Aired December 10, 2001 - 05:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: It has been more than a month since the Taliban lost its stronghold on Kabul, yet most women there continue to walk the streets hidden by their burkas.

But as CNN's Patricia Sabga explains, for these women, liberation is being able to make a choice.

PATRICIA SABGA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They've come out of their houses but not out of hiding. With the Taliban gone, women roam the streets of the capital freely, but few have chosen to free themselves from the burka. We went to one of the local markets to find out why.

(on camera): Why you're still wearing your burkas more than a month after the Taliban left Kabul?

"The burka is good for us," she says. "We don't want to take it off."

(voice-over): Some keep covered for religious reasons.

"We are Muslims," she says. "Our beliefs won't allow us to walk uncovered."

Others believe it's just easier to stay out of sight.

"You see all the men around?" Says this teenager. "They are whispering, they are talking about us. This is why we don't take off the burka."

(on camera): These teenagers are telling me they don't feel safe lifting their veils.

(voice-over): We try to continue our interview.

(on camera): I want to know from the women,

(voice-over): but the men have had enough.

"It's better to ask a teacher or an educated woman," interrupts this man. "They don't know anything."

Our group of teens silenced, we head further into the market and find a teacher. "I have no idea when or how we'll take off the burka," she says. "The situation is still uncertain, the government is still unsettled, and until men get used to it, we can't take them off."

(on camera): It's been just a few weeks since women came out of their homes and into the streets of Kabul, but we were wondering what do men think of this? To find the answer, we thought Butcher Street would be the perfect place to find out.

(voice-over): "It's been a long time, six years that women have been covered and men are thirsty to see the women," says this young man.

It's a sentiment that easily leaps the generation gap.

"It's been over five years," says this 65-year-old. "We are thirsty to look at beautiful ladies."

Years of deprivation are one reason to stay covered, but it's the memories of years past that frighten women most. When the Northern Alliance took over this city in the early '90s, countless women were raped by soldiers.

"The last time the Northern Alliance was in Kabul, a lot of men violated women," said this soldier, "but this time, we were told we must not do that again."

We wondered how far he would put that theory to the test.

(on camera): If your sister or your mother or your daughter were here in Kabul, would you want them to wear a burka?

(voice-over): "I will tell my mother and sister they must cover if they're in Kabul."

All the more reason for women here to walk the streets, for now, with a jaundiced eye and a veil of blue.

Patricia Sabga, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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