HELEN BROWN travelled to Pakistan to sample the culture and history but found herself in a world of guns and drugs on the border with Afghanistan, where women do not -- or dare not -- show their faces.

Here, the 28-year-old Lancashire Evening Telegraph photographer gives an insight into life next to the Taliban prior to this week's retaliation bombing by allied aircraft, with the story of her visit to the town of Peshawar.

Helen visited Pakistan on holiday in the summer two years ago as she journeyed via Islamabad, the country's capital, to Beijing.

The area around Peshawar has been swamped by people trying to escape the conditions in Afghanistan but it is an area where the strict religious rules of the Taliban are still enforced by many.

And there was evidence of the trade in drugs which centres around the vast poppy fields of Afghanistan, where some of the richest heroin in the world is produced.

She said: "What struck me most about being in Peshawar and going to the Khyber Pass was that you didn't see many women. The few that did roam on to the streets were covered entirely by their burquah (religious dress).

"I wondered how I could ever strike up a conversation with one of these women -- it occurred to me eventually that I wasn't supposed to."

Helen said at that time there were about two million Afghan refugees living around Peshawar. "Their mud houses were across the road from a huge brick palace, complete with very high security walls.

"I was informed this was drug baron Afridi's house. We drove past very quickly so there was not enough time to look properly. We were informed he was in jail at that time, but even so he was still in charge. Even the birds seemed to need permission to fly.

"To visit this border region, we had to have special permission and be escorted by chaperone gunmen. We called at a gun shop on the way to learn to use the Kalashnikovs ourselves before we went past the signs saying foreigners were not to go any further.

"I was glad of the gunmen who were on my side. With the open drugs trafficking going on around us, I wasn't surprised at their presence.

"The men were carrying these guns like jewellery. It was a status symbol for them." And Helen said the same men could be seen later in the day, playing cricket outside their homes.

"In Peshawar, I did manage to make some friends," she said. At the museum a little girl and boy with their mother and some other women wanted to speak to me. The girl was encouraged to repeat 'what is your name?' and her shyness faded as we struck up a conversation in English/phrasebook Urdu and sign language.

"We laughed and had a wonderful conversation where we spoke about nothing in particular. As I left, the little boy ran to me and gave me a strawberry candy.

"As I turned around the women and girl had run to the fence to wave goodbye.

"I wish I could have known these people. They live in a world far removed from my own, but beneath the intimidating but beneath the exterior visions of rifles and drug culture, there are some great people."