Ban triggered international outrage and even left many in the movement baffled by the decision
\n Kabul
\nThe Taliban prohibition on girls\u2019 education shows the movement\u2019s conservatives retain tight control of the group, and exposes a power struggle that puts at risk crucial aid for Afghanistan\u2019s desperate population, experts say.
\nThe ban has triggered international outrage and even left many in the Taliban movement baffled by the decision.
\n\u201cThe order was devastating,\u201d a senior Taliban member told AFP. \u201cThe supreme leader himself interfered.\u201d
\nAll Taliban officials who spoke to AFP on the subject did so on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the topic.
\nSecondary schools for girls were ordered to shut last month, just hours after being reopened for the first time since the Taliban\u2019s return to power in August.
\nThe shocking U-turn came after a secret meeting of the group\u2019s leadership in the city of Kandahar, the Taliban\u2019s de facto power centre.
\nBut one senior Taliban official told AFP that Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and some other senior figures were \u201cultra-conservative on this issue\u201d and dominated the discussion.
\nTwo groups \u2014 the urban and the conservatives \u2014 have emerged in the movement, he said.
\n\u201cThe conservatives have won this round,\u201d he added, referring to a group of clerics including Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Sharai, Minister for Religious Affairs Noor Mohammad Saqeb and Minister for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Mohammad Khalid Hanafi.
\nThe clerics feel excluded from government decisions and voicing their opposition to girls\u2019 education is one way to restore their influence, said Ashley Jackson, a London-based researcher who has worked extensively on Afghanistan.
\nShe told AFP the \u201coutsized influence of this out-of-touch minority\u201d has prevented the country from moving ahead with something the vast majority of Afghans favour \u2014 including much of the leadership.
\n\u201cIt shows that Kandahar remains the centre of gravity for Taliban politics,\u201d said International Crisis Group analyst Graeme Smith.
\nA senior Taliban member said the hardliners were trying to appease thousands of fighters who hail from the conservative countryside.
\n\u201cFor them, even if a woman steps out of her home it is immoral. So, imagine what it means to educate her,\u201d he said.
\nThe Taliban member said Akhundzada was against \u201cmodern, secular education\u201d as he associated it with life under former Western-backed presidents Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s his worldview.\u201d
\nThe Taliban returned to power last year as US-led forces ended an occupation in place since an invasion ousted the hardliners in 2001.
\nIn the 20 years between the Taliban\u2019s two reigns, girls were allowed to go to school and women were able to seek employment in all sectors, though the country remained socially conservative.
\nActivist and Islamic scholar Tafsir Siyaposh noted girls in Afghanistan have always studied in single-sex classes and followed an Islamic curriculum, so the ban shows the Taliban just wanted to \u201coppress the rights of women by giving excuses\u201d.
\nA Taliban source in Pakistan confirmed differences at the leadership level on the issue, but said the movement was in no danger of fragmenting.
\n\u201cThere is a debate on this issue … but we are trying to overcome our shortcomings,\u201d he said.
\nStill, analysts say the ban was a blow to Taliban efforts to gain international recognition and to raise aid to address Afghanistan\u2019s humanitarian crisis.
\nJackson said neither Akhundzada nor those closest to him \u201cfully understood or appreciated\u201d the consequences of their edict for an international community that has linked official recognition to the group\u2019s respect for women\u2019s rights.
\nEven some senior Taliban officials agree.
\n\u201cWe are telling them (the ultra-conservatives) that running a country is different from running a madrassa,\u201d said one Taliban official from Kandahar, using the term for an Islamic school.
\n\u201cEverything was going smooth until this harsh order came. And it came from our leader so we have to follow it \u2014 but we are trying to change it,\u201d he said.
\nThe ban reduces the willingness of governments to cooperate with the Taliban said the ICG\u2019s Smith.
\n\u201cIt raises the question of who exactly they should speak with inside the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ban triggered international outrage and even left many in the movement baffled by the decision Kabul The Taliban prohibition on girls\u2019 education shows the movement\u2019s conservatives retain tight control of the group, and exposes a power struggle that puts at risk crucial aid for Afghanistan\u2019s desperate population, experts say. The ban has triggered international outrage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-255285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n