The burqua, rape and forced marriage.

The West went to Afghanistan to beat the Taliban. The Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women, who had opposed both the Taliban and its predecessors, the Soviet Union, at first cautiously welcomed the troops. RAWA helped to run refugee camps and schools, but soon the bombing drove them to take refuge in Pakistan with thousands of others, but still crossing the border again to carry on the work in their own country.

But now that has changed. Both RAWA and the former American radio journalist Sarah Chayes, now living in Kandahar and author of the book The Punishment of Virtue, reveal the corruption and oppression of women now existing in the country.

"Contrary to the aspirations of our people and expectations of the world community, the Northern Alliance, these brethren-in-creed of the Taliban and Al Qaida are again in power and generously supported by the US government It has completely shattered the dream of our wounded people for liberation from the heavy chains of the Taliban tyranny....." says their latest statement.

It is known that warlords are in the American-supported Karzai government, and Karzai himself has warned the US that Afghanistan is becoming ungovernable.

But the women are protesting that far from being rescued from the Taliban, the leaders of the Northern Alliance have no ideological difference from the Taliban. "The incidence of rape and forced marriage is on the rise again, and most women continue to wear the burqa out of fear for their safety......by reinstalling the warlords in power the US is ultimately replacing one fundamentalist regime with another."

The level of violence is rising. RAWA tell of a 29-year old woman publicly stoned to death after a charge of adultery. "Old traditions also regard women as the second sex and they are suppressed, so RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over."

The rising to power of the Northern Alliance and the brutal suppression of women - teachers being shot in the schools and prevented from working - is something that the British government should take into account before committing any more our troops to defend the cause of fundamentalism.

Sarah Chayes, who runs a co-operative and wears men's clothes so as to be safe outside, has written what is described by Christina Lamb as a devastating indictment of the contradictions of US policy in Afghanistan. A Harvard history graduate who serve in the Peace Corps in Morocco and then returned to Harvard to specialise in the medieval Islamic period, she knows and loves the country and its people. On a visit to London, she said that the war had delivered only "lies, corruption and murder."

It is time our government listened to her and to the suffering Afghan women.