Taliban’s new edict divides even its members
Burqa decree sparks anger among Afghan women and conflict within militant group.
KABUL — Arooza was furious and afraid, keeping her eyes open for Taliban on patrol as she and a friend shopped Sunday in Kabul’s Macroyan neighborhood.
The math teacher was fearful that her large shawl, wrapped tight around her head, and sweeping palebrown coat would not satisfy the latest decree by the country’s Taliban government. After all, more than just her eyes were showing — her face was visible.
Arooza, who asked to be identified by just one name to avoid attracting attention, wasn’t wearing the allencompassing burqa preferred by the Taliban, who on Saturday issued a new dress code for women appearing in public. The edict said only a woman’s eyes should be visible.
The decree by the Taliban’s hard-line leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, even suggests that women shouldn’t leave their homes unless necessary and outlines a series of punishments for male relatives of women who violate the code.
It was a major blow to the rights of women in Afghanistan, who for two decades had been living with relative freedom before the Taliban takeover in August — when U.S. and other foreign forces withdrew in the chaotic end to a 20-year war.
A reclusive leader, Akhundzada rarely travels outside southern Kandahar, the traditional Taliban heartland. He favors the harsh elements of the group’s previous time in power, in the 1990s, when girls and women were largely barred from school, work and public life.
Like Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar, Akhundzada imposes a strict brand of Islam that marries religion with ancient tribal traditions, often blurring the two.
Akhundzada has taken tribal village traditions — by which girls often marry at puberty and rarely leave their homes — and called them religious demands, analysts say.
The Taliban has been divided between pragmatists and hard-liners as it struggles to transition from an insurgency to a governing body. Meanwhile, its government has been dealing with a worsening economic crisis. Taliban efforts to win recognition and aid from Western nations have floundered, largely because the fundamentalist group has not formed a more representative government and has restricted the rights of girls and women.
Until now, hard-liners and pragmatists in the movement have avoided open confrontation.
Yet divisions were deepened in March, on the eve of the new school year, when Akhundzada issued a lastminute decision that girls should not be allowed to go to school after completing the sixth grade.
Weeks before the start of the school year, senior Taliban officials had told journalists that all girls would be allowed back in school. But Akhundzada said allowing the older girls back to school violated Islamic principles.
A prominent Afghan who meets the leadership and is familiar with the group’s internal squabbles said that a senior Cabinet minister expressed outrage over Akhundzada’s views at a recent leadership meeting. He requested anonymity to speak freely.
Torek Farhadi, a former government advisor, said he believes Taliban leaders have opted to not spar in public because they fear that any perception of divisions could undermine their rule.
“The leadership does not see eye to eye on a number of matters, but they all know that if they don’t keep it together, everything might fall apart,” Farhadi said. “In that case, they might start clashes with each other.
“For that reason, the elders have decided to put up with each other, including when it comes to nonagreeable decisions which are costing them a lot of uproar inside Afghanistan and internationally,” Farhadi added.
Some of the more pragmatic leaders appear to be looking for quiet workarounds that will soften the hard-line decrees.
Since March, there has been a growing chorus, even among the most powerful Taliban leaders, to return older girls to school while quietly ignoring other repressive edicts.
Earlier this month, Anas Haqqani, younger brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who heads the powerful Haqqani network, told a conference in the eastern city of Khost that girls are entitled to education and would soon return to school — though he didn’t say when. He also said women had a role in building the nation.
“You will receive very good news that will make everyone very happy . ... This problem will be resolved in the following days,” Anas Haqqani said at the time.
In the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, women wore the customary conservative Muslim dress. Most wore a traditional hijab, consisting of a head scarf and long robe or coat, but few covered their faces, as directed by the Taliban leader a day earlier. Those wearing a burqa, a head-to-toe garment that covers the face and hides the eyes behind netting, were in the minority.
“Women in Afghanistan wear the hijab, and many wear the burqa, but this isn’t about hijab, this is about the Taliban wanting to make all women disappear,” said Shabana, who wore bright gold bangles beneath her flowing black coat, her hair hidden behind a black head scarf with sequins. “This is about the Taliban wanting to make us invisible.”
Arooza said the Taliban rulers are driving Afghans to leave their country.
“Why should I stay here if they don’t want to give us our human rights?” she said. “We are human.”