New measures by the Taliban: Isolation with all their might

Et only lasted a few days, after the universities for women in Afghanistan were closed, the next blow followed: In a letter published on Christmas Eve, the Taliban Ministry of Economic Affairs called on all national and international non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan to keep women from work until further notice suspend. The reason given in the communication was similar to that of previous decrees with which the Islamists have increasingly pushed the country’s women out of public life and disenfranchised them since they took power in August 2021: NGO employees would too often disregard Islamic dress codes.

The reactions at home and abroad followed promptly and should not have surprised anyone within the Taliban leadership in Kabul and Kandahar. In a wave of outrage, not only Western countries and international aid organizations were stunned. The Emirate of Qatar, which is concerned about good relations with the Taliban, also expressed its “extreme concern” about the new bans.

Then on Sunday, the first aid organizations announced that they had to stop their humanitarian work under the new regulations, including Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International. “We cannot reach children, women and men who urgently need help in Afghanistan without our female staff,” the three organizations said in a joint statement.

No obstacle for the hardliners

In fact, the ban on working for non-governmental organizations means that their work in many areas is practically impossible. Especially in a strictly Islamic country like Afghanistan, aid organizations can only reach women and, as a result, many families through female mediators, since it is culturally unimaginable in rural areas in particular for a woman to get in touch with a strange man.

In the discussion about higher education for girls, critics of the Taliban at home and abroad pointed out that without doctors, nurses and midwives, most Afghan women will be practically excluded from health care in the medium term. The UN estimates that around 28.3 million Afghans, around three quarters of the population, will depend on humanitarian aid in the coming year. The numbers give a vague idea of ​​what impact the restrictions that have now been decided will have on the population.

This is obviously not an obstacle for the hardliners among the Taliban. They are showing ever more clearly that their goal is the country’s total isolation from the modern world. The extreme economic and humanitarian regression caused by the factual exclusion of many aid organizations seems to them to be at best a necessary evil that one has to accept for ideological purity.

However, the signs are becoming increasingly clear that there is a more or less open debate within the Taliban leadership on the key political issue of excluding women from public life. As early as the spring, there had been credible reports that a majority within the government was in favor of reopening schools for girls of all grades and thus wanted to meet the demands of the international community. Over the weekend, a source in Kabul, well connected within the Taliban government, confirmed to the FAZ that the majority of ministers opposed the closure of universities to women, as well as the recent NGO order.

The criticism is now becoming clearer

According to the source, a power struggle within the leadership is in full swing. The radical measures of the past few days can be seen as an attempt by Emir Haibatullah Achundsada and the circle of hardliners around him to demonstrate their own power to the pragmatists who are in favor of more progressive politics. Within the Taliban structures, the emir and supreme leader, who lives in strict isolation in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, always has the last word. Open disputes within management are traditionally avoided for fear of any form of division.

But the criticism is now becoming clearer. At the weekend, Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Stanikzai, who was part of the Taliban negotiating group in Doha, once again posted a video online in which he described education for men and women as a religious obligation and spoke of the Afghan nation’s need to express itself because of the I am increasingly distancing myself from the Islamists from the Taliban’s rigid attitude towards girls’ education. Education is very important in the poverty-stricken Afghan society. Even in rural, very conservative areas, many families want to send their daughters to school. After the universities were closed to women last week, there were open protests in several places, which were brutally suppressed.

It has now been heard from various sources that Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Defense Minister Mullah Yaqub wanted to travel to Kandahar to speak to Emir Haibatullah. As deputies to the emir, the two are among the highest-ranking Taliban and are considered to be particularly influential – Haqqani because he is in charge of one of the Islamists’ most powerful military structures with his notorious “network”, Yaqub above all because he is the son of the first legendary Taliban emir Mullah Omar is held in high esteem. Both are now attributed to the pragmatists who want to settle the issues with the international community and worry about popular support, which threatens to continue to dwindle. However, it remains to be seen to what extent the two want and are able to challenge the power of the emir.