The closure of secondary schools to girls shows that the direction of the Taliban movement remains dictated by its most radical fringe and exposes its divisions, which affect Afghanistan’s chances of obtaining much-needed aid, according to experts.
In an unexpected about-face, the Taliban, in power since August, closed high schools and colleges for girls on March 23, just hours after their long-announced reopening.
This reversal aroused the indignation of the international community but also left incredulous the most modern component of the Taliban, aware that this could affect its ability to obtain from the West the financial aid that Afghanistan is demanding.
“This order was devastating. The supreme leader himself intervened,” said a senior Taliban official, on condition of anonymity like all Taliban sources interviewed by AFP.
This decision was taken after a secret meeting of Taliban leaders in Kandahar (south). No official reason has been given to justify it, the Taliban only recalling that the education of girls must be done in accordance with Sharia, Islamic law, of which they defend an ultra-rigorous version.
The supreme leader of the movement Hibatullah Akhundzada, and a few others, “are ultra-conservative on this issue” and had the last word, explains the same senior Taliban official.
“The ultra-conservatives have won this game,” he says, referring to a group of clerics that includes Supreme Court President Abdul Hakim Sharai, Minister of Religious Affairs Noor Mohammad Saqeb and Minister for the Promotion of virtue and prevention of vice Mohammad Khalid Hanafi.
– Restoring Kandahar’s influence –
They have so far felt kept out of government decisions and opposing girls’ education is their way of restoring their grip, says Ashley Jackson, an expert on Afghanistan.
“The exaggerated influence of this minority disconnected from reality” prevented the government from applying a measure approved by the vast majority of Afghans and most Taliban leaders, she adds.
“This shows that Kandahar remains the center of gravity of Taliban policy,” said Graeme Smith, analyst for the International Crisis Group. Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan, is the cradle of the Taliban who made it the epicenter of their previous regime (1996-2001).
The ultra-conservatives also seek to appease the thousands of Taliban fighters from the most conservative rural areas of the country, underlines the same senior Taliban official.
“For them, as soon as a woman leaves her house, it’s immoral. So imagine what it is about educating her,” he says.
According to him, the supreme leader is himself opposed to a “modern, secular education”, which he associates with life under the former Afghan presidents, supported by the West, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.
The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August, ending 20 years of occupation by the United States and its allies, which had ousted them in 2001.
During these two decades, Afghan women – deprived of almost all rights under the previous Taliban regime – have acquired new freedoms, returning to school or applying for jobs in all sectors of activity, even if the country is remained socially conservative.
– Hard blow for humanitarian aid –
Activist Tafsir Siyaposh notes that Afghan girls have always studied in single-sex classes and followed an Islamic curriculum. Banning them from school shows that the Taliban only want to “oppress women’s rights by giving excuses”, she accuses.
Another Taliban source, based in Pakistan, confirmed to AFP these differences of opinion between Taliban leaders on the question of education, but dismissing any risk of seeing the group fragment.
“There is a debate on this question (…), but we are trying to resolve our differences,” she says.
For analysts, however, this reversal of the school is a blow to the efforts of the Taliban to be recognized by the international community and obtain the essential humanitarian aid.
Neither Hibatullah Akhundzada, nor those close to him, “have fully understood and assessed” the consequences of this decision on the international community, which linked possible recognition of the Taliban government to its respect for women’s rights, considers Ashley Jackson.
Even senior Taliban officials agree with this analysis. “We tell them (the ultra-conservatives) that running a country is not the same as running a madrassa”, a Koranic school, one of them, from Kandahar, told AFP.
“Everything was going well until this harsh decision came. It came from our Emir, so we have to apply it, but we are trying to change it,” he adds.
The Taliban’s stance on education makes foreign governments less lenient towards them, judge Graeme Smith.