Mariam
SEPTEMBER 1996wo and a half years later, Mariam awoke on the morning of September 27 to the
sounds of shouting and
whistling, firecrackers and music. She ran to the living room, found Laila already at the
window, Aziza mounted on her shoulders. Laila turned and smiled.
"The Taliban are here," she said.
Mariam had first heard of the Taliban two years before, in October 1994, when Rasheed
had brought home news that they had overthrown the warlords in Kandahar and taken the
city. They were a guerrilla force, he said, made up of young Pashtun men whose families
had fled to Pakistan during the war against the Soviets. Most of them had been raised some
even born in refugee camps along the Pakistani border, and in Pakistani madrasas, where
they were schooled in Shari'a by mullahs. Their leader was a mysterious, illiterate, one
eyed recluse named Mullah Omar, who, Rasheed said with some amusement, called
himself Ameer ul Mumineeny Leader of the Faithful.
"It's true that these boys have no risha, no roots," Rasheed said, addressing neither
Mariam nor Laila. Ever since the failed escape, two and a half years ago, Mariam knew that
she and Laila had become one and the same being to him, equally wretched, equally
deserving of his distrust, his disdain and disregard. When he spoke, Mariam had the sense
that he was having a conversation with himself, or with some invisible presence in the
room, who, unlike her and Laila, was worthy of his opinions.
"They may have no past," he said, smoking and looking up at the ceiling. "They may
know nothing of the world or this country's history. Yes. And, compared to them, Mariam
here might as well be a university professor. Ha! All
true. But look around you. What do you see? Corrupt, greedy Mujahideen commanders,
armed to the teeth, rich off heroin, declaring jihad on one another and killing everyone in
between that's what. At least the Taliban are pure and incorruptible. At least they're decent
Muslim boys.Wallah, when they come, they will clean up this place. They'll bring peace
and order. People won't get shot anymore going out for milk. No more rockets! Think of
it."
For two years now, the Taliban had been making their way toward Kabul, taking cities
from the Mujahideen, ending factional war wherever they'd settled. They had captured the
Hazara commander Abdul Ali Mazari and executed him. For months, they'd settled in the
southern outskirts of Kabul, firing on the city, exchanging rockets with Ahmad Shah
Massoud. Earlier in that September of 1996, they had captured the cities of Jalalabad and
Sarobi.
The Taliban had one thing the Mujahideen did not, Rasheed said. They were united.
"Let them come," he said. "I, for one, will shower them with rose petals."