Taliban 2.0 are not learning any lessons. They are in a mindset of their own which is neither Islamic nor progressive. This regressive attitude has brought miseries for Afghan society. A recent decree from Kabul confirms that there is hardly any difference of thought from the yesteryear Mullah Omer to today's reclusive Hibatullah Akhundzada. The predominant Muslim society is being led down the slide, and enforcement of stringent regulations in the name of religion is an antithesis of progression. The new laws once again prove that the Taliban leaders have failed to keep their word with the international community for ushering in an inclusive government and enabling civil liberties.
The newly announced codification of laws goes on to explicitly mention the decorum of society on behaviour and lifestyle. Though the claim is that they are based on Shariah injunctions, many beg to differ at home and in the Muslim world at large. Those restrictions are surely not in sync with the great religion of Islam that bestows emancipation of mankind and equal rights for women. But Afghan dictum says that a special morality police will regulate virtue and vice in society and strict punishments will be doled out to violators. The regulations range from barring social interactions, monitoring private lives and dress code, banning women from free intermingling in public places and keeping them away from many enterprises of employment and education. The West has already shrugged it off as a ploy to create a "climate of fear" in a monolithic backward society.
Prohibitions like driving, playing music and transporting unveiled women or women in the presence of men who are without a mahram simply cement the culture of otherness. Though some of the tenets such as ban on homosexuality, adultery and gambling are welcome in any conservative society, going a step ahead by suspecting the conduct of womenfolk as they go on to use phones and undertake professions in art and culture is overstepping rationality. Taliban 2.0 are in need of revisiting these diktats for erecting a forward-looking society.
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