Girls’ Education Ban Reveals Deep Rifts Within Taliban

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The prohibition of the Taliban about the education of girls shows that the ultra-conservative movement maintains strict control over Islamic groups and reveals the struggle for power that endangers important assistance for the Afghan-hope population, experts said.

The ban sparked international anger and even left many people in the Taliban movement who were confused by the decision.

All Taliban officials talk to AFP about this problem with anonymous conditions, because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Middle schools for girls were ordered to be closed last month, only a few hours after reopened for the first time since the return of the Taliban in August. The surprising U-turn came after the secret meeting of group leadership in the city of Kandahar, the center of the power of the De facto Taliban.

Officials never justify the prohibition, besides saying the education of girls must be in accordance with Islamic principles.” But a senior Taliban official told AFP that the highest leader of Hibatullah Akhundzada and several other senior figures was “very conservative about this problem” and dominated the discussion.

Two groups and ultra-conservatives-have appeared in the movement, he said. “The ultra-conservatives have won this round,” he added, referring to a group of scholars including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Abdul Haki Sharai, Minister of Religious Affairs Noor Mohammad Saqib and Minister of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Deputy Mohammad Khalid Hanafi.

The scholars feel excluded from the government’s decision and voicing their opposition to the education of girls is one way to restore their influence, said Ashley Jackson, a researcher based in London who has worked widely in Afghanistan.

He told AFP “the big influence of this untouched minority” has prevented the country from moving forward with something that mostly supported Afghan-including a lot of leadership.

This shows that Kandahar remains the center of gravity for Taliban politics,” said Analyst of the international crisis group Graeme Smith.

A senior Taliban member said the hardliners tried to calm thousands of fighters from very conservative rural areas. “For them, even if a woman stepped out of her house, it was immoral. So, imagine what it means to educate her,” he said.

Taliban members said Akhundzada opposed “modern, secular education” because he associated it with life under the former president who was supported by West Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.

The Taliban returned to last year’s power when the US troops ended the occupation since the invasion overthrowed hardlines in 2001.

In 20 years between two Taliban governments, girls are allowed to go to school and women can find work in all sectors, even though the country remains socially conservative.

Islamic activists and scholars Siyaposh Tafsir notes girls in Afghanistan always study in the first grade of the sex and follow the Islamic curriculum, so that the prohibition shows that the Taliban only wants to oppress women’s rights by giving reasons.”

The Taliban source in Pakistan confirmed differences in the level of leadership on this problem, but said the movement was not in the dangers of fragments. “There is a debate about this problem … but we are trying to overcome our shortcomings,” he said.

However, analysts said the prohibition was a blow to the Taliban effort to get international recognition and to increase assistance to overcome the Afghan Humanitarian crisis.

Jackson said that both Akhundzada and the closest to him were “fully understood or valued” the consequences of their decree for the international community who have linked official recognition with the group’s respect for women’s rights.