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Um, yes they were. Not in such a rigid and extreme form backed by law and violent retaliation, but they were commonly seen behaviors. Look over at Afghanistan's neighbor, Pakistan, where in the border regions (which share many of the same cultural traditions and history) you see very similar events, and those were going on long before the Taliban hoped the border.

EDIT: The Taliban did not spring from nothing and bring about some extreme new order. They were the product of their own culture as well as their religion.

Take this as an example:

Culturally, we like the Beatles. But, lets say some Christian extremists come to power in the US and put in place a law that the Beatles are mandetory listening because God gave them the gift of awesome sound.

Religious becomes the driving force behind a very radical cultural enforcement. It isn't simply, religion, but rather a religious acceptance of a cultural concept outside the religion.

Believe it or not, but a woman fully covering her body, does not originate in Islam. That's a Persian cultural tradition that spread through the Persian Empire and was in place before the coming of Islam.

Stuff ain't so simple after all!

 LordofHats wrote:
Um, yes they were. Not in such a rigid and extreme form backed by law and violent retaliation, but they were commonly seen behaviors. Look over at Afghanistan's neighbor, Pakistan, where in the border regions (which share many of the same cultural traditions and history) you see very similar events, and those were going on long before the Taliban hoped the border.

Take this as an example:

Culturally, we like the Beatles. But, lets say some Christian extremists come to power in the US and put in place a law that the Beatles are mandetory listening because God gave them the gift of awesome sound.

Religious becomes the driving force behind a very radical cultural enforcement. It isn't simply, religion, but rather a religious acceptance of a cultural concept outside the religion.

Believe it or not, but a woman fully covering her body, does not originate in Islam. That's a Persian cultural tradition that spread through the Persian Empire and was in place before the coming of Islam.

Stuff ain't so simple after all!

Because Islam comes from that region (ex-Persian states), it is only to be expected that it will have most of their traditions as its base, it doesn't change the fact that those "traditions" were only translated into mandatory law in Afghanistan with the rising of the Taliban into power and that the sole initial motivation of the Taliban to enforce those laws was that they were enforcing their version of the Quran.

Also Pakistan's border regions share similar events to Afghanistan because they are also practically under Taliban control.

Some things are cultural to the region, most of them only came with the Taliban and no one is saying that there is anything simple about it. In fact that whole mess is far far far from simple!

PhantomViper wrote:

Because Islam comes from that region (ex-Persian states)...

Islam originated in what is now Saudi Arabia.

You know, that place where Mecca and Medina are.

Also not a place conquered by the Persian Empire. I mean, lets face it. Before the age of crude the only thing worth having in Saudi Arabia was sand for a really long time.

I stand corrected and dully chastised in regards to the components of the Persian Empire, but surely you are not claiming that culture in that part of the globe was not greatly influenced by it?

and it also doesn't change the fact that the Taliban's biggest motivator is religion and not cultural factors.

PhantomViper wrote:
I stand corrected and dully chastised in regards to the components of the Persian Empire, but surely you are not claiming that culture in that part of the globe was not greatly influenced by it?

Which part of the globe? Former Persia? Central Asia? The Middle East? Northern Africa? Eastern Europe?

PhantomViper wrote:

and it also doesn't change the fact that the Taliban's biggest motivator is religion and not cultural factors.

Well, yeah, no one disputes that. Its just that the way they practice their religion is driven by culture, rather than scripture. Islam is a vehicle for them, not an impetus.