It was a family affair on NBC’s The Tonight Show on October 3, 2001. The show’s irrepressible host Jay Leno interviewed his wife Mavis Leno, in her capacity as a representative of the Los Angeles-based Feminist Majority Foundation. Mavis Leno has been fighting for rights for women in Afghanistan — which has suffered a massive setback in the Taliban regime — for the last four years. "Everything that constitutes human rights, but life itself, has been swept away from them by the Taliban," she said of life under the dreaded regime. Mavis has been an uncompromising critic of the Taliban and is a supporter of increased humanitarian aid to Afghan women. Her husband began the talk show by introducing Mavis as “the smartest person I’ve ever known in my life.” Mavis said the Afghan women enjoyed equal rights in education and employment till 1996, when the Taliban regime took over. She said the ruling regime has put women in a situation that essentially amounts to house arrest. But Mavis signed off on a positive note, saying the people of Afghanistan were still fighting to establish a democratic rule.