THE Taliban, who are rapidly gaining territory in Afghanistan as the US withdraws its forces, are demanding that families marry off girls to their fighters and ordering men to grow beards and go to mosques. During the Taliban’s five-year rule (1996-2001) - which was almost universally shunned by other Governments but supported militarily and politically by Pakistan - women were prohibited from working, attending school or leaving home without a male relative. Men were forced to grow beards and wear a cap or turban. Music and other forms of entertainment were banned. Anyone not abiding by this code risked being publicly lashed, beaten or humiliated. Women who disobeyed these rules were sometimes killed, wrote Sher Jan Ahmadzai, in ‘Asia Times’.

 

Taliban is re-imposing repressive laws and retrograde policies in areas captured by them, they are imposing laws that defined its 1996-2001 rule when they enforced their version of Islamic Sharia law. During peace negotiations and on visits abroad, the Taliban’s leadership has expressed both a belief that women have rights under Islamic laws and a desire to reduce violence in Afghanistan. The group has also pledged to protect such public infrastructure as government buildings, roads and schools, which it has often attacked. But in newly-captured areas their policies are more hard-line, says Ahmadzai. According to reports by the Afghan stations Radio Liberty and Radio Salam Watandar, Taliban rulers in Afghanistan’s north and north-east have asked families to marry off one girl per family to their fighters; said women should not leave home without a male relative, and ordered men to pray in mosques and grow beards. The Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission, an Afghan Government agency, says public infrastructure has been destroyed and social services halted in many Taliban-controlled areas, leaving 13 million people without public services, reported ‘Asia Times’.

 

All evidence suggests the Taliban still believe in restoring their old system of the emirate, in which an unelected religious leader, or emir, was the ultimate decision-maker. No one could challenge his verdicts because he was believed to have divine authority from God, says Ahmadzai. “The Taliban don’t believe in democracy. They just want the collapse of the government so they can reconquer Afghanistan and reimpose their system,” Ahmad Rashid, a Pakistani journalist who has covered Afghanistan for 20 years, told Germany’s ‘Deutsche Welle’ newspaper in July 2021. The Taliban’s revival of its extremist policies in rural areas has filled many women in the cities with dread. Night curfew imposed in 31 provinces: THE Afghan Government announced that it has imposed a night-time curfew in 31 provinces except Kabul, Panjshir and Nangarhar, in the wake of unabated Taliban attacks across the war-torn country. The night-time curfew will be effective between 10 pm and 4 am, ‘TOLO News’ quoted the Ministry of Interior as saying late on Saturday. The new measure comes as the Government forces continue to fight the Taliban in 21 provinces of the country. According to the statistics provided by the Afghan security agencies, the security forces have killed 262 Taliban fighters over the past 24 hours and wounded 176 more. The Taliban has however, rejected the numbers.