Taliban’s promises of tolerance in Afghanistan often don’t match reality

Afghan tv anchor Mirwais Haqdost appeared regular, even with seven armed Taliban fighters behind him, as he learn out an announcement ready by the group.

“The mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate are attempting to ascertain peace and stability in Afghanistan,” he stated, utilizing the Taliban’s most popular title, as two fighters watched him intently. “Their sole request is for folks to help them and cooperate with them, and never be afraid of something.”

This scene, broadcast final week on Afghanistan TV, a personal channel, revealed the distinction between what the nation’s new rulers say, and what they more and more do.

“Our TV station was besieged,” Mr. Haqdost later stated in a video posted on social media, including that he had complained to the Taliban’s media workplace, however to no avail. “We performed our applications, and the Taliban had been contained in the studio with us,” he stated.

After seizing Kabul on Aug. 15, the Taliban made preliminary shows of tolerance, pledging that Afghans, even those that labored with the previous authorities and international forces, don’t have anything to concern from the nation’s new rulers.

However, across the nation, the Taliban already are exhibiting indicators that they’re unwilling to tolerate cultural or political expressions that battle with their fundamentalist beliefs. Many Afghans, aware of the violent regime the Taliban operated within the late Nineties, concern the worst has but to return.

In Daykundi province west of Kabul, shortly after their arrival two weeks in the past, the Taliban banned ladies from faculty past sixth grade, ensuing within the closure of all ladies’ faculties, stated Hamza Ulfat, an activist from the world.

The Taliban there additionally banned girls from leaving dwelling and not using a male family member, even forbidding them from washing garments within the river, Mr. Ulfat stated. The brand new restrictions, together with new taxes, have led to lethal clashes between a neighborhood militia and the Taliban, in response to a number of residents.

Within the absence of a authorities or formally introduced guidelines beneath the brand new regime in Kabul, Taliban fighters within the provinces seem like appearing largely primarily based on their very own private interpretation of what constitutes acceptable conduct.

Final Friday, fashionable singer Fawad Andarabi invited a dozen Taliban fighters from his village in northern Baghlan province to lunch at his home as an indication of respect, his son Jawad Muradi stated.

Within the afternoon, after the fighters left, one other group of Taliban arrived on the home, took Mr. Andarabi to the close by village of Qala Kafir and shot him within the head, his son stated. The Taliban have stated they’d ban most music as un-Islamic.

“That is the work of the Taliban, and nobody else was concerned in it. The Taliban are chargeable for it,” Mr. Muradi stated. The offender was later detained by the Taliban, nevertheless it was unclear whether or not he can be punished, provided that he had about 100 armed males beneath his command, in response to a neighborhood cleric.

The Taliban didn’t reply to requests for remark.

There are indicators of divisions throughout the Taliban, with some commanders seemingly attempting to regulate fighters from rural areas who they are saying are much less accustomed to life in additional liberal cities that till lately had been held by the U.S.-backed authorities.

A coffee-shop proprietor in Kabul stated Taliban officers apologized to restaurant house owners after their fighters had been deemed to have behaved rudely and accused some eating places of doubling as brothels.

In a speech to Taliban fighters at Kabul airport, which was circulated on-line, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed Tuesday requested fighters to be mild of their interactions with the folks.

“Present compassion,” he stated. “This nation deserves calm, it deserves to breathe,” he stated. “We’re servants of the nation, not masters of the nation.”

But, there are mounting indicators of a centralized clampdown.

The Taliban’s appearing minister of training final week stated the motion would ban female and male college students from learning collectively at universities, main many Afghans to doubt whether or not girls can be allowed to review in any respect.

Girls who used to work within the Afghan police or authorities ministries say they obtain frequent threats by the Taliban, who they are saying have seized databases with worker info.

“They name me from my former workplace and say, We all know the place you reside,’” stated a feminine worker of the ministry of inside who’s in hiding.

Zala Zazai—a feminine police second lieutenant who turned publicly recognized for serving within the conservative jap province of Khost, regardless of quite a few threats to her life—stated she knew of a whole lot of feminine cops who had obtained menacing calls from the Taliban.

Ms. Zazai fled to Tajikistan two months in the past, however her mom and sister remained in Kabul. The largest risk to her household, she stated, was her personal father, who used to work as an engineer for American forces in Bagram earlier than becoming a member of the Taliban. He swore to kill his daughters for working for the police.

Ms. Zazai stated Taliban guarantees of amnesty for folks affiliated with the previous authorities meant nothing.

“He doesn’t respect their speeches,” she stated of her father, who continued to name her mom. “He says, ‘Once I discover you, I’ll kill you all.’”

In a number of massive gatherings organized by the Taliban over the previous week to debate future insurance policies, there wasn’t a lady in sight.

“As we had foreseen, we see restrictions of particular person rights and we see restrictions of collective rights like girls, as an entire,” stated Shaharzad Akbar, chairwoman for the toppled Afghan republic’s Unbiased Human Rights Fee. “It’s not nearly ladies going to high school, it’s about being concerned in determination making.”

“I fear about what’s to return when it comes to, as an example, felony procedures and reinstitution of torture as a type of official punishment,” Ms. Akbar stated.

Journalists inform tales of being crushed whereas reporting in Kabul, together with reporters from Tolo, Afghanistan’s largest personal tv channel, and a photographer from the Los Angeles Instances. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle has stated Taliban fighters attempting to find one in every of its journalists shot lifeless a member of the reporter’s household and critically injured one other.

In Kandahar, the Taliban’s tradition and knowledge division on Sunday prohibited feminine presenters from the airwaves and tv, and banned music from the radio.

Practically all feminine journalists have fled Kandahar, stated Nagina Anwari, an anchor at Hewad TV, a personal channel, who’s at the moment in Qatar.

Throughout the former authorities, she and her colleagues had been continuously threatened by the Taliban who adopted her automotive and as soon as tried to kidnap her sister, a fellow anchor, she stated.

“However we continued to do our job,” Ms. Anwari stated. “If we had been to surrender, who would inform the tales of the ladies of Kandahar.”

Ms. Anwari fled Kandahar two months in the past. Because the Taliban took town, they’ve come to her mom’s home thrice, kicking the entrance gate and firing into the air, she stated, apparently searching for her.