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The burka in Kabul is often treated by western reporters as a symbol of the repression of women by Afghan society. Richard Engel for NBC's In Depth offered a creepier explanation for the burka's role in Afghanistan's sexual politics. It allows women who have escaped a husband's brutality to walk in the street in anonymous safety. Engel visited a battered women's shelter in Kabul which presented hair-raising tales of sexist depravity--a nine-year-old girl sold by her mother as a child bride for $300; a teenage bride whose 65-year-old gambler husband offered her as a prostitute in payment for his debts; a 22-year-old wife of a guerrilla who broke her legs and pulled out her fingernails. The women will have to live in the confinement of the shelter for years--unless they use that burka to venture outside.
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