Last May the Taliban regime in Afghanistan circulated the 100 or so foreign workers based in Kabul with a form to sign. The rulers wanted a written undertaking that the workers would place themselves under the jurisdiction of Islamic Law and religious police, and abide by Taliban rules.
By agreeing to the strict Taliban code, the aid staff were signing a pledge that, among other things, they would abstain from smuggling, meeting, interviewing or having sex with Afghan women; they were also undertaking to avoid drinking alcohol, taking photographs of living creatures, playing musical instruments loudly, selling books, magazines or cassettes, and eating pork.
Asked about the form, the Taliban Foreign Minister, Mr Wakil Ahman Muttawakil, told reporters that the UN aid agencies were being "influenced by Jewish American women's organisations" that are against the Taliban.
The increasingly harsh treatment of foreigners, the decision of the Taliban to destroy two giant Buddha statues last March, and the regime's insistence on giving refuge to Osama bin Laden, have further alienated the regime and Afghanistan from much of the outside world.
According to a foreign aid worker who last week fled Kabul as the threat of an attack by the United States intensified, conditions have deteriorated in recent months. The worker, who did not want to be identified, said it had become increasingly difficult to live in Kabul since the spring of this year.
"Things have really deteriorated in the last six months," she told The Irish Times. "What is upsetting is that we had to leave so many people in need behind."
The world first became aware of the Taliban in 1994 when they were appointed by Islamabad to protect a convoy trying to open up a trade route between Pakistan and Central Asia. The group, which was made up of Afghans trained in religious schools in Pakistan along with former Islamic fighters known as Mujahedin, proved effective bodyguards, driving off other Mujahedin groups who attacked and looted the convoy.
They went on to take the nearby city of Kandahar, beginning a remarkable advance which led to the capture of the capital, Kabul, in September 1996.
Today the Taliban control nearly all of Afghanistan apart from the far north of the country, which is the last stronghold of the Northern Alliance led, until his murder last week, by the ethnic Tajik commander, Ahmed Shah Masood. The country now hosts one of the world's most extensive training grounds for international terrorism.
Five years ago the Taliban offered to provide a safe haven for the terrorist, Osama bin Laden. A Saudi multi-millionaire who inherited $25 million from his father, bin Laden became a powerful benefactor.
In turn, he has won increasing influence over the Taliban who are under mounting pressure from the United States to hand him over. The Taliban's religious leader will decide what they should do in the next few days.
When the Taliban took control in 1996 Afghanistan was recovering from years of conflict. The Soviet Union withdrew from the country in 1989 after 10 years of bloody war. But within three years, the country was embroiled in civil conflict with different armies shelling each other and raining bombs and missiles on the citizens of the capital, Kabul.
Only recognised by three countries - Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - the Taliban movement is understood to be operating a broad financial support network filtered through hundreds of legitimate business and front organisations in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and across the Islamic world.
When they took power, the stated aim of the Taliban was to set up the world's purest Islamic State, banning frivolities like television, music and cinema. Their attempts to eradicate crime have been reinforced by the introduction of Islamic law including public executions and amputations.
Women and girls in Afghanistan have become virtually invisible. The Taliban have issued edicts forbidding women from working outside the home, except in limited circumstances in the medical field. Hardest hit have been over 30,000 widows in Kabul and others elsewhere in the country who are the sole providers for their families.
The Taliban prohibit girls from attending school. Women and girls are not allowed to appear outside the home unless wearing a head-to-toe covering called the Burqa. A three-inch square covered with mesh provides the only means of vision.
Access by women and girls to medical services has been drastically cut back. Women are beaten on the streets if an inch of ankle shows under their burqa. They also risk being beaten if they make noise while they walk. The Taliban edicts require that windows in houses that have female occupants be painted over.
With 95 per cent of the country under their control, the Taliban have continued to press claims for international recognition. But the UN, which recently described the situation in Afghanistan as "a horror", continues to impose sanctions.
The statistics for the country which the Talibans rule are depressing. The people have been bombed, raped, tortured, slaughtered, looted and uprooted by two decades of war. One of every four children die before the age of five while the infant and maternal death rates are the second highest in the world. Life expectancy is about 43 years.
Only 12 per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water and barely 30 per cent of the men and 15 per cent of the women can read or write.
Its lands are some of the most densely mined in the world. War and poverty have devastated its roads, irrigation systems and other infrastructure.
And with the Taliban still refusing to hand over bin Laden, the country faces more devastation as the prospect of an attack by the United States grows nearer.
Already thousands of these battle-weary people have started to flee Afghanistan to safety.