KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — One year on from the
Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, some cracks are opening within their
ranks over the crucial question of just how much reform their leaders can
tolerate.
اضافة اعلان
Infamous during their first reign for their brutal
crackdowns on rights and freedoms, the Islamists vowed to rule differently this
time.
At a superficial level at least, they appear to have
changed in some respects.
Officials in
Kabul have embraced technology, while
cricket matches are cheered in full stadiums.
Televisions were banned under the Taliban
government’s first incarnation, while Afghans now have access to the internet
and social media.
Girls are allowed to attend primary school and women
journalists are interviewing government officials — unthinkable during the
Taliban’s first stint in power in the 1990s.
The group’s hardline core, composed of
battle-hardened veteran fighters, is against any significant ideological change
that could be viewed as a sign of capitulation to their enemies in the West.
“You have one (Taliban) camp, which is pushing ahead
with what they’re seeing as reforms, and another camp that seems to think even
these meager reforms are too much,” said Ibraheem Bahiss, an Afghanistan
analyst with International Crisis Group.
The
US and its allies — which had bankrolled
Afghanistan for 20 years — have locked the country out of the global banking
system and billions in frozen assets abroad, as they hold out for reforms from
the Taliban.
Without significant progress, it is the Afghan
people who suffer as the country reels under a massive economic crisis that has
seen some families choose between selling their organs or their infant
daughters.
‘Retrograde dogmatic views’
On whether the Taliban are
even capable of reform, analysts are wary that recent policy changes amount to
little more than “tokenism”.
“There are some cases where we could point to an
evolution in policy, but let’s be very clear. ... We’re still looking at an
organization that has refused to move beyond very retrograde, dogmatic views,”
said
Michael Kugelman, an Afghanistan specialist with the Washington-based
Wilson Center think tank.
Most secondary schools for girls remain closed. Many
women have been forced out of government work, while many fear venturing out
and being chastised by the Taliban.
Demands from the West for an inclusive government
were ignored, and the assassination of Al-Qaeda’s leader in Kabul last week
underlined the Taliban’s ongoing ties with terrorist groups.
Reform as capitulation
It is from the Taliban’s
power base of southern Kandahar that the secretive supreme leader
Hibatullah Akhundzada gathers his powerful inner circle of veteran fighters and religious
clerics to impose a harsh interpretation of sharia.
And for them, ideological concerns outweigh any
political or economic drivers to effect change.
“The needs of the Afghans remain the same as 20
years ago,” Mohammad Omar Khitabi, a member of a council of clerics who advise
Akhundzada in Kandahar, told AFP.
His thoughts are echoed by Kandahar’s Vice and
Virtue Director Abdul Rahman Tayabi, another close aide of the supreme leader.
“Our people do not have too many demands, like
people in other countries might have,” he told AFP.
Afghan families were left stunned in March when
Akhundzada overturned the education ministry’s decision to reopen secondary
schools for girls.
Some analysts believe he felt uneasy over what could
be seen by hardliners as an act of surrender to the West on girls’ rights.
Hopes of restoring international money flows were
shattered — to the dismay of many Taliban officials in Kabul, some of whom
spoke out against the decision.
Relations with Western diplomats — who meet
regularly with Taliban ministers but have no access to Akhundzada — suffered a
major setback.
A slew of directives that harked back to the first
reign of the Taliban quickly followed.
Akhundzada has stressed the need for unity in the
movement as he carefully seeks to balance several factions — including
competing groups that claim the credit for the 2021 victory over US-led forces.
While advisers to Akhundzada claim the Taliban can
survive without foreign income, unlocking billions of dollars in frozen assets
abroad would be a crucial lifeline.
“We know the Taliban can be transactional, but they
cannot appear to be transactional,” a Western diplomat told AFP on condition of
anonymity.
Economic pressure
Within the movement, no one
dares openly challenge Akhundzada’s power, but discontent is quietly growing
among the lower ranks.
“Taliban guards are getting their salaries late, and
their salaries are low too,” said one mid-level Taliban official who asked not
to be named.
Many have returned to their villages or travelled to
Pakistan to take up different work, another Taliban member added.
Attempts by the movement to shore up revenue through
lucrative coal mining have sparked infighting in the north, exacerbated by
ethnic divisions and religious sectarianism.
With winter only a few months away, food security
and freezing temperatures will put even more pressure on the leaders of one of
the world’s poorest countries.
These mounting stresses have the potential to worsen
divisions, Kugelman said, though likely not enough to force any dramatic shift
in policy.
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