1) No Television
2) No Statues

Pilgrims, travelers and conquerors from the 3rd century A.D. onwards have marveled at the two towering Buddha statues of Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan. Hewn from sandstone cliffs, these two giants, 53 m and 35 m high, are a fusion of Classical Greek and Indian art that flourished along the ancient Silk Road. Despite their massive size, the standing Buddhas possess an ethereal lightness. It's as if they managed to levitate above a millennium of warfare and calamity that has plagued Afghanistan, at least until the fiercely Islamic Taliban rulers fixed the Buddhas in their gun-sights.

The regime intends...