There were some expectations in the beginning of 2022 that Taliban 2.0 will be different from Taliban 1.0, the extremist conservative Islamist regime in Kabul.
The hopes have now been belied with the Taliban de facto authorities in Kabul or rather in Kandahar led by the so called Supreme Authority Mullah Hibatullah proving to be as radical religious ideologist as has been his predecessor Mullah Omar the founder of the Taliban in the 1990s.
International agencies particularly the United Nations Afghan mission is continually engaged with the Islamic Emirate defacto authorities in Kabul to open women’s rights despite facing some stiff resistance.
Thus, Markus Potzel, the acting head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), met IEA Acting minister for higher education, Nida Mohammad Nadim and discussed the prohibition of Afghan women from attending universities with the acting minister of higher education.
Potzel has also met Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Kabir
The Taliban official released a statement on Dec 20 which banned women from public and private universities until further notice. The decision led to considerable international and most Muslim countries’ condemnation.
Sirajuddin Haqqani perhaps the second or the third most influential figure in the Taliban regime has assured a review of the present restrictions that have been laid on women at the behest of the so called Supreme Authority of the Taliban Mullah Haibatullah.
The supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada holds consultative meetings with the heads, deputies and secretarial officials of the Council of scholars of various provinces from time to time, however it is not clear if there is a review of the restrictions that have been discussed in these meetings.
The UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan Potzel has also said that the bans on female education and work for aid agencies will harm all of Afghanistan.
On the contrary, the acting minister Nida Mohammad Nadim has parroted the standard excuse that the higher education ministry was working to develop Afghans, protecting Islamic and national values even as hundreds of Muslim clergy inside as well as outside the country have indicated that Islam does not proscribe education to women and provides them equal rights.
Many Islamic religious officials including the muftis and the ulemas have condemned Taliban interpretation of Sharia. Some leaders within the Taliban have also resented the strict regime that has been imposed from the Kandahar clerical clique as it is known now led by Mullah Haibatullah the so-called supreme authority has enforced several restrictions which are not palatable.
Their message obviously does not go to Kandahar where Mullah Haibatullah continues to hold sway pushing his own people into a humanitarian crisis as NGO's pulled out of the country after a ban was imposed on women.
The Taliban administration is run on dual lines – from Kabul where the ministry functions and Kandahar where the Supreme Authority operates with a closed group of clerics who are isolated from the World and are issuing dictats to impose the ultra conservative system of social and political governance of their imagination.
Due to lack of response by the Defacto authorities,. the UNAMA stopped its cash aid shipment to Afghanistan in reaction to the ban on women aid workers, Hasib Noori Da Afghanistan Bank spokesperson said as per Amu TV.
The international community has contributed 40 to 80 million dollars every week to the country’s economy, and Central Bank officials have tweeted about the infusion of funds each week, according to Noori but there has been no such tweet for some weeks now evidently the provision of money to sustain the Afghan economy has stopped.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s lead humanitarian coordinator also declared that the Taliban’s restriction on NGOs employing women had forced the suspension of the UN flight transporting money for humanitarian aid into Kabul as per the Tolonews.
Thus the political, diplomatic, economic, humanitarian and security crisis in Afghanistan has grown over the past one month in fact over the past year.
There were some expectations in the beginning of 2022 that Taliban 2.0 will be different from Taliban 1.0, the extremist conservative Islamist regime in Kabul.
The hopes have now been belied with the new Taliban de facto authorities in Kabul proving to be as radical religious ideologist as has been their predecessors in the second half of 1990s.
Thus, it is not surprising that many more restrictions on women have been imposed, public lashings resumed including of women during the past few months add public executions ostensibly in claimed obedience of the Sharia laws.
The narrow hierarchical system of the Taliban which provides the Supreme Authority who has only temporal learning total power prevents alternate thoughts and ideas taking route thus a transition in the near term is not anticipated.