In pictures: The darkness within

A return to the pre-Taleban era was never going to be easy. For the militia, no girl was too young to observe the hijab. Thousands of women have grown up in Afghanistan not knowing what life is like without the burqa.

This was Herat in October 2003, nearly two years since the fall of the Taleban. No one, it seemed, was in a hurry to show them the brave new world.