If that story about the Taliban is at all true, what it would seem to indicate is that women's rights _are_ an issue - at least the right to not be kidnapped and raped is valued. Being a second-class citizen is better than being a disposable subhuman resource. Of course you don't want to settle for the former either but it indicates a step.
All the interviews I've seen seem to show that ordinary Afghans couldn't stand the Taliban, but at least you know where you are with them, rather than some chaotic warlord whose cronies might decide to shoot you any second for no reason - or for that matter some foreign airforce who might bomb your village to shit and say they thought it was rebels. They don't seem to be being offered much of a choice right now.
