Hosseini's work does a great job of exploring the horrors of the Taliban in specific regards to women.  I don't think that it can be overlooked in terms of the sadness that Hassan writes to Amir about the difficulties of life under the Taliban.  It is not a mistake that Hassan makes specific mention of how Farzana assaulted and mistreated simply for speaking in a loud voice in the marketplace.  In chapter 21, the detail of how the people in the soccer stadium were dressed in terms of the long pants is another reminder of how life for women was fundamentally transformed under the rule of the Taliban.  The stoning of the couple accused of adultery was something targeted at both, but somehow women ended up paying more of a price for such actions.  The Taliban's ascendancy to power, embodied by characters like Assef, represents how women's rights and their own sense of autonomy were fundamentally threatened by the rise of the fundamentalism in the Taliban.  The Taliban's version of fundamentalism ends up disempowering many at the cost of the few, and in the process of such a transformation, ends up hurting women in a significant manner.