Kabul - The spacious ballroom glittered with lights. Young women in chiffon and satin gowns sashayed among the tables or twirled slowly on the dance floor to tapes of rhythmic music. Amid "oohs" and "aahs," the bride and groom were lowered from the ceiling in a golden cable car and escorted to a lotus-shaped throne. Tiny drones whirred in the air, recording every moment.
Outside the high-tech fairy-tale setting, the Afghan capital remained firmly in the grip of a strict religious regime that has barred teenage girls from school, prohibited women from traveling without a male guardian, required them to wear shapeless Islamic robes in public and most recently banned them from all universities.