Of the restrictions imposed by the Taliban regime on Afghan women and girls, one of the most destructive was the ban on education. Afghans fled into neighboring countries, primarily Pakistan and Iran, to join refugees who had fled during the Soviet invasion and then during the civil war. At the end of 2001 there were almost 2.2 million Afghans under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan and almost 1.5 million in Iran (UNHCR 2005). The installation of t…