Barbara Walters of 60 Minutes (USA) did a story on gender roles in Kabul several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked about ten paces behind their husbands. She returned to Kabul recently and observed that the men now walked several paces behind their wives. 

Ms Walters approached one of the Afghani women and said. “This is marvellous. Can you tell the free world just what enabled women to achieve this reversal of roles?

“Land mines,” said the woman.