Taliban hard-liners consolidate control with crackdown on women
Source: Washington Post
Taliban hard-liners consolidate control with crackdown on women
Recent edicts overrode the wishes of some Taliban officials in the capital and in the provinces
By Susannah George
January 10, 2023 at 2:00 a.m. EST
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban hard-liners are consolidating their control over Afghanistan with the recent bans on women’s education and work, overriding the wishes of some Taliban officials in the capital, Kabul, and at the provincial level, according to government and aid officials.
The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and his fellow ultraconservatives based in Afghanistan’s second city of Kandahar are cracking down on social freedoms as their movement transitions from primarily waging an insurgency to governing a large, diverse country.
The draconian restrictions issued by Akhundzada last month, banning women from attending universities and from working for international organizations, demonstrated that real authority continues to reside in Kandahar rather than in Kabul, home to Taliban ministries and the group’s acting prime minister.
“This is [the supreme leader] taking more control” over national policy and how his directives are followed in Kabul and elsewhere, said an aid official in Kabul with direct knowledge of negotiations within Taliban leadership. The official, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing negotiations or internal policy disagreements.
Akhundzada, an ultraconservative Muslim cleric, has led the Taliban since 2016, ...
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