Taliban 2.0 is turning out to be identical to the original version. The Afghan Taliban’s short-lived effort to portray themselves as being more moderate than the group’s leadership in the nineties took a hit a few days back after they began restricting women’s travel and backtracking on promises to allow women to go to school. Now, the group has reinstated beard requirements for men. At present, the restriction only applies to government employees, but it does not require any particular stretch of the imagination to predict that the next phase will be a nationwide requirement.
Representatives from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are already reportedly roving the entrances of government offices to ensure that employees are in compliance with the beard requirement, as well as a dress code that enforces local dress rule under which employees must wear shalwar kameez or similar local clothes, along with a traditional hat or turban. Employees are also being required to pray, according to source-based reports. Failure to adhere to any of these requirements will result in termination from duty, which is still an improvement over the ‘old’ Taliban, who would often require that anyone failing to follow their rules was terminated from existence.
Other new rules include restrictions on visiting parks — women can only go three days a week, while men get the other four. These restrictions also apply to people wanting to go with their families, including spouses or other male guardians.
The flurry of new restrictions at a time when the Afghan population is suffering under Western sanctions directly tied to the Taliban’s ultra-conservative policies is extremely concerning. Keep in mind that these sanctions were supposed to be removed if the Taliban kept their word and did not impose harsh restrictions. While it was fair to debate whether or not the sanctions were justified when they were first imposed, the Taliban have made them look fair in retrospect by doing everything Western countries predicted they would. The Afghan people now only have the inflexibility of the Taliban to blame, because Western financial support means accepting Western conditions. Right or wrong, there are no ifs or buts about it.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 31st, 2022.
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