[ad_1]
After the Taliban’s meteoric takeover of the Afghan capital, Kabul, a pressing discussion has revolved around the new government’s legal system and, more specifically, how it will treat women.
After the Taliban victory last week, Commander-in-Chief Waheedullah Hashimi outlined how Afghanistan will be governed.
He said that a council of Islamic scholars will determine the legal system and that an Islamic government will be guided by Islamic law, not the principles of democracy.
“There will be no democratic system at all because it has no base in our country,” he said. “We will not discuss what kind of political system we should apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It’s Sharia law and that’s it, ”he told Reuters.
At the group’s first press conference on Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid assured women that their rights would be respected “under Islamic law,” adding that women would have the right to education and at work.
But Taliban officials remain vague about the rules and restrictions and how Islamic law will be implemented. It is therefore unclear what life will be like in the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” – the name by which the Taliban refer to the country.
“We will proceed in the coming days to find solutions such as work on the judicial system and [getting] religious to review the system and its implementation… in the light of Islamic rules, ”Suhail Shaheen, spokesperson for the Taliban political office in Doha, told Al Jazeera. “Let’s wait until the whole system is in place.
“As for women, they can exercise their basic rights in accordance with Islamic rules,” Shaheen added.
According to HA Hellyer, a member of the Center for Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, this ambiguity may take time to dissipate.
“There will be many questions about how the Taliban will apply Sharia, or Islamic law, in Afghanistan. There won’t be much clarity on this for a while, ”Hellyer said.
The 2004 constitution included a preamble that no law could contravene Islam [File: Aref Karimi/AFP]Islamic law in Afghanistan
“Sharia” translates to “the way” in Arabic and refers to a wide range of moral and ethical principles taken from the Quran and the words and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.
The principles vary according to the interpretation of various scholars who have established schools of thought followed by Muslims who use them to guide their daily lives.
Many Muslim-majority countries base their laws on their interpretation of the principles of Islamic law, but, despite this, none have identical laws.
Even in Afghanistan, when the Taliban – who ruled the country between 1996 and 2001 – and Ashraf Ghani’s government claimed to uphold Islamic law, they had separate legal systems.
The Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law comes from the “Deobandi branch of Hanafi jurisprudence” – a branch present in several parts of Southeast Asia, including Pakistan and India – and from its own “lived experience. by the group as a predominantly rural and tribal society, ”said Talha Abdurazzaq, a researcher at the Institute for Strategy and Security at the University of Exeter.
Afghan independent analyst Ahmed-Waleed Muhib said: “The Taliban may be best understood as ‘classics’ in interpretation, or more oriented towards academics seen as orthodox, such as those in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. -East. “
Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution, which was followed by Ghani’s government, included a preamble that the nation’s laws would not contravene Islam, but the Taliban criticized it for trying to reconcile “Islamic principles. with the liberal world order and the fact that it was written and consecrated under what they perceived to be the hegemonic West, ”according to Muhib.
He cited the entertainment industry operating freely under Ghani as an example of something the Taliban would perceive as “un-Islamic.”
During the 1990s, the Taliban imposed strict dress codes on men and women and widely prohibited women from working and going to school. [File: Ozan Kose/AFP]Remembering the 90s
The Taliban emerged in the early 1990s after years of civil war. Many had studied in religious schools in Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan.
The group vowed to restore peace and security after it captured Kabul in the mid-1990s and ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani, a senior Afghan mujahedin official who fought the Soviet occupation.
The Taliban were initially popular because of their success in eradicating corruption, fighting lawlessness, and securing areas under their control.
When he came to power in 1996, he imposed strict dress codes on both men and women and widely banned women from working and going to school.
The Taliban have also applied criminal sanctions (hudood) in accordance with their strict interpretation of Islamic law, including public executions of those convicted of murder or adultery by their judges, and amputations for those convicted of theft. The group has also banned television, music and movies.
With memories of the 1990s still fresh, thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country over the past week. Many gathered at Kabul International Airport and attempted to take evacuation flights for foreign mission personnel.
Some women and rights groups have expressed serious concerns about the future of rights and freedoms in Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban took power, thousands of Afghans have tried to leave [File: Hoshang Hashimi/AFP]What changed ?
According to Hellyer, today “is an entirely new situation”, so things should be different.
The Taliban will face a new Afghanistan compared to that of the 1990s, with different roles already in place for women and other groups, Hellyer said.
The Taliban will also face the possibility of differences of opinion between the leaders and those of the movement at large, he told Al Jazeera.
According to Muhib, while “the theoretical interpretation of Sharia law would remain broadly the same as in the 1990s”, the prevailing circumstances – which are usually largely taken into account in reaching legal judgments – are different.
“Judgments and legal approaches will also differ,” he said.
“Although a fully democratic system is unlikely, it is plausible that the characteristics of the previous regime [Ghani’s] would remain, as long as these conformed to the general ethics of the new “Islamic system” endorsed by the Taliban, “Muhib added.
The group may also be interested in projecting an image of moderation and inclusiveness to avoid being isolated by the international community as was the case in the 1990s.
“They admitted to making mistakes in their first emirate, so now we have to wait and see what lessons they think they have learned,” Abdurazzaq said, adding that the Taliban’s legal views are linked to their lived experience, which, in the past, involved being in “constant war” and losing power.
The EU has said it is suspending development aid to Afghanistan until the political situation becomes clearer. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said the Taliban must abide by UN Security Council resolutions in order to access € 1.2 billion in development funds.
On the ground, the movement has been somewhat contradictory.
Women journalists were allowed to resume their work in front of the cameras of Afghanistan’s most popular TV station, Tolo – even interviewing a Taliban leader on Tuesday – as the group announced an amnesty for civilians who worked with the groups foreigners in the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, Shabnam Dawran, a news anchor for state broadcaster RTA Pushto, posted a video Thursday, saying she was told to go home when she tried to go to work.
On the same day, the Taliban cracked down on protesters who wanted to fly the Afghan flag.
A day later, a UN threat assessment report said the Taliban was going door-to-door looking for opponents and their families, raising fears of revenge.
The Taliban said it banned members from entering private homes and denied the allegations, but said they were investigating cases of criminality committed by individuals.
[ad_2]
Source link