anderson cooper CNN anderson cooper did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before the Afghan conflict. He noted that women customarily walked 5 paces behind their husbands. He recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From his vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands and are happy to maintain the old custom. He approached one of the Afghani women and asked, “Why do you now seem happy with the old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?” The woman looked him straight in the eyes and without hesitation said, “Land mines.”