Infamous during their first reign Taliban vowed to rule differently this time
\nKANDAHAR:
\nOne year on from the Taliban\u2019s 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.
\nInfamous during their first reign for their brutal crackdowns on rights and freedoms, the Taliban vowed to rule differently this time.
\nOn a superficial level at least, they appear to have changed in some respects.
\nOfficials in Kabul have embraced technology, while cricket matches are cheered in full stadiums.
\nTelevisions were banned under the Taliban government\u2019s first incarnation, while Afghans now have access to the internet and social media.
\nGirls are allowed to attend primary school and women journalists are interviewing government officials — unthinkable during the Taliban\u2019s first stint in power in the 1990s.
\nThe group\u2019s 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.
\n\u201cYou have one (Taliban) camp, which is pushing ahead with what they\u2019re seeing as reforms, and another camp that seems to think even these meagre reforms are too much,\u201d said Ibraheem Bahiss, an Afghanistan analyst with International Crisis Group.
\nThe United States 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.
\nWithout 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.
\n\u2018Retrograde dogmatic views\u2019
\nOn whether the Taliban are even capable of reform, analysts are wary that recent policy changes amount to little more than \u201ctokenism\u201d.
\n\u201cThere are some cases where we could point to an evolution in policy, but let\u2019s be very clear… We\u2019re still looking at an organisation that has refused to move beyond very retrograde, dogmatic views,\u201d said Michael Kugelman, an Afghanistan specialist with the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank.
\nMost 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.
\nSimple joys such as music, shisha and card games are strictly controlled in the most conservative areas, while protests have been crushed and journalists regularly threatened or detained.
\nDemands from the West for an inclusive government were ignored, and the assassination of Al-Qaeda\u2019s leader in Kabul last week underlined the Taliban\u2019s ongoing ties with jihadist groups.
\nReform as capitulation
\nIt is from the Taliban\u2019s 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.
\nAnd for them, ideological concerns outweigh any political or economic drivers to effect change.
\n\u201cThe needs of the Afghans remain the same as 20 years ago,\u201d Mohammad Omar Khitabi, a member of a council of clerics who advise Akhundzada in Kandahar, told AFP.
\nHis thoughts are echoed by Kandahar\u2019s Vice and Virtue Director Abdul Rahman Tayabi, another close aide of the supreme leader.
\n\u201cOur people do not have too many demands, like people in other countries might have,\u201d he told AFP.
\nAfghan families were left stunned in March when Akhundzada overturned the education ministry\u2019s decision to reopen secondary schools for girls.
\nSome analysts believe he felt uneasy over what could be seen by hardliners as an act of surrender to the West on girls\u2019 rights.
\nHopes of restoring international money flows were shattered — to the dismay of many Taliban officials in Kabul, some of whom spoke out against the decision.
\nRelations with Western diplomats — who meet regularly with Taliban ministers but have no access to Akhundzada — suffered a major setback.
\nA slew of directives that harked back to the first reign of the Taliban quickly followed.
\n\u201cThe decisions that (Akhundzada) has made so far are all based on the opinions of religious scholars,\u201d said Abdul Hadi Hammad, the head of a madrassa and member of the supreme leader\u2019s advisory council.
\nAkhundzada 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.
\nWhile advisers to Akhundzada claim the Taliban can survive without foreign income, unlocking billions of dollars in frozen assets abroad would be a crucial lifeline.
\n\u201cWe know the Taliban can be transactional, but they cannot appear to be transactional,\u201d a Western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
\nEconomic pressure
\nWithin the movement, no one dares openly challenge Akhundzada\u2019s power, but discontent is quietly growing among the lower ranks.
\n\u201cTaliban guards are getting their salaries late, and their salaries are low too. They are unhappy,\u201d said one mid-level Taliban official based in northwestern Pakistan, who asked not to be named.
\nMany have returned to their villages or travelled to Pakistan to take up different work, another Taliban member added.
\nAttempts by the movement to shore up revenue through lucrative coal mining have sparked infighting in the north, exacerbated by ethnic divisions and religious sectarianism.
\nWith winter only a few months away, food security and freezing temperatures will put even more pressure on the leaders of one of the world\u2019s poorest countries.
\nThese mounting stresses have the potential to worsen divisions, Kugelman said, though likely not enough to force any dramatic shift in policy.
\n\u201cIf the Taliban leadership start to feel very real threats to their political survival, then could they change?\u201d he asked.
\n\u201cGiven that they are ideologically focused, that may not be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Infamous during their first reign Taliban vowed to rule differently this time KANDAHAR: One year on from the Taliban\u2019s 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. Infamous during their first reign for their brutal crackdowns on rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-276588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n