Milestones: Five Years Ago in TIME

The TALIBAN took over Afghanistan in 1996 after a brutal civil war. As TIME noted, in an issue whose cover featured undecided women voters, the ensuing peace was more terrifying than the war.

A band of onetime seminarians and clerics who formed an army just two years ago, the Taliban now control 75% of a country torn by war... In their first week the Taliban shut girls out of schools and ordered women workers from offices and hospitals. At a press conference, two female foreign correspondents were forbidden to ask questions of the Acting Deputy Foreign Minister Shirmohammad Stanekzai, because, according...

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