There is so much discussion in the media about violent Islamic extremism, that it obscures the other traditions and history of the faith. I was reminded of this recently while reading Ahmed Rashid’s ‘Taliban’ where he writes about the history of the city of Herat in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over.

Herat, the heart of medieval Islam in the entire region, was a city of mosques and madrassas, but had an ancient liberal Islamic tradition. It was the home of Islamic arts and crafts, miniature painting, music, dance, carpet-making, and numerous stories about its redoubtable and beautiful women.

Heratis still recount the story of Queen Gowhar Shad, the daughter-in-law of the conquerer Taimur who moved the Timurid capital from Samarkand to Herat in 1405 after Taimur’s death. One day in the company of 200 ‘ruby-lipped’, beautiful, ladies-in-waiting, the Queen inspected a mosque and madrassa complex she was building on the outskirts of Herat.

The madrassa students (or taliban) had been asked to vacate the premises while the Queen and her entourage visited, but one student had fallen asleep in his room. He was awoken by an exquisitely attractive lady-in-waiting. When She rejoined the Queen, the lady was panting and dishevelled by the exertions of passionate love-making and thus she was discovered.

Instead of punishing her or the student, the Queen ordered all her ladies-in-waiting to marry the students in a mass ceremony so as to bless them and ensure they avoided temptation in the future. She gave each student clothes and a salary and ordered that husband and wife should meet once a week as long as the students studied hard.

Says Rashid: “It was the kind of story that epitomized the liberal, human tradition of Islam and madrassa education in Herat.” Rashid tells the story on the way to explaining why the women of Herat were the first to rebel against the Taliban after they imposed their version of Shariah.

On 17 October, 1996, more than 100 women protested outside the office of the Governor against the closure of the city’s bathhouses. The women were beaten and then arrested by the Taliban religious police, who went from house to house warning men to keep their women indoors.