India, Oct. 6 -- When she was leaving on assignment to Kabul, my friend Harinder Baweja came to me with a strange request: Could she borrow some of my long-sleeved kurtas? Shammy, as she is known among friends and family, famously wore only sleeveless blouses, even in winter. But she was off to meet the Taliban who had just taken over after shooting president Mohammad Najibullah and then stringing up his body from a pole. Then they issued a series of edicts that included severe restrictions on women, including how they dressed.

One of the few women conflict reporters of her generation, Baweja cut her professional teeth in Punjab at the height of militancy in the 1980s and witnessed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir from her first trip in 1...