Yale University Press NEW HAVEN & 9 780300"089028 - Sito Mistero
Yale University Press NEW HAVEN & 9 780300"089028 - Sito Mistero Yale University Press NEW HAVEN & 9 780300"089028 - Sito Mistero
104 ~ TALIBANcut-back in humanitarian aid. However, Mullah Omar and the Kandaharleadership refused to allow an expansion of UN aid activities and eventuallyforced the UN to quit.In the winter of 1998-99 there were several acts of looting and robberyby Taliban soldiers, reflecting the growing indiscipline caused by economichardship. In the worst such incident in Kabul in January 1999, siTaliban soldiers had their right arms and left feet amputated for looting.The authorities then hung the amputated limbs from trees in the cicentre where they could be seen by the public until they rotted. Although;,internal differences increased speculation about serious weakness withinjthe Taliban, which could lead to an intra-Taliban civil war, MulOmar's exalted position and increased powers allowed him to keepcontrol of the movement.Thus the Taliban, like the Mujaheddin before them, had resortedone-man rule with no organizational mechanism to accommodate oiethnic groups or points of view. The struggle between moderate and hardlineTaliban went underground with no Taliban leader willing to contra*'diet Omar or oppose him. Such a situation is more than likely to leadan eventual explosion within the Taliban - an intra-Taliban civil war|which can only once again divide the Pashtuns and bring more sufferito the common people.8A VANISHED GENDER:WOMEN, CHILDREN ANDTALIBAN CULTURENobody ever wants to see the inside of Maulvi Qalamuddin's sparseoffice in the centre of Kabul. Half the population never willanyway, because the Maulvi does not allow women to even enterthe building. A huge Pashtun tribesman with enormous feet and hands,a long thick nose, black eyes and a bushy black beard that touches hisdesk while he talks, Qalamuddin's physique and name generate fear acrossthe city. As head of the Taliban's religious police, the stream of regulationshe issues from this office has dramatically changed the lifestyle ofKabul's once easy-going population and forced Afghan women to disappearentirely from public view.Maulvi Qalamuddin runs the Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi An al-Munkar, or the Department of the Promotion of Virtue and Preventionof Vice. He himself prefers the translation as Department of ReligiousObservances. In the streets, people just call the department's thousandsof young zealots, who walk around with whips, long sticks and kalashnikovs,the religious police and even more derogatory names. The day Ivisited him for a rare interview in the summer of 1997, he had just issuednew regulations which banned women from wearing high heels, makinga noise with their shoes while they walked or wearing make-up. 'Stylishdress and decoration of women in hospitals is forbidden. Women are dutyboundto behave with dignity, to walk calmly and refrain from hittingtheir shoes on the ground, which makes noises,' the edict read. How thezealots could even see women's make-up or their shoes, considering thatall women were now garbed in the head to toe burkha was mystifying (seeAppendix 1).The new edict formalized previous restrictions on disallowing women
106 ~ TAUBANfrom working, but it now also banned them from working for Westernhumanitarian aid agencies, except in the medical sector. 'Women are notallowed to work in any field except the medical sector. Women workingin the medical sector should not sit in the seat next to the driver. NoAfghan woman has the right to be transported in the same car as foreigners,'the edict continued. Education for boys is also at a standstill inKabul because most of the teachers are women, who now cannot work.An entire generation of Afghan children are growing up without anyeducation. Thousands of educated families have fled Kabul for Pakistansimply beause their children can no longer receive an education.I nervously asked Qalamuddin what justified the Taliban's banwomen from working and going to school. 'We will be blamed by ourpeople if we don't educate women and we will provide education for themeventually, but for now we have serious problems,' he replied. Like somany mullahs and despite his size, he is surprisingly soft-spoken and Istrained to catch his words. 'There are security problems. There are noprovisions for separate transport, separate school buildings and facilitiesto educate women for the moment. Women must be completely segregatedfrom men. And within us we have those men who cannot behaveproperly with women. We lost two million people in the war against theSoviets because we had no Sharia law. We fought for Sharia and now thisis the organization that will implement it. I will implement it come whatmay,' Qalamuddin said emphatically.When the Taliban first entered Kabul, the religious police beat menand women in public for not having long enough beards or not wearingthe burWia properly. 'We advise our staff not to beat people on the streets.We only advise people how to behave according to the Sharia. Forexample, if a person is about to reverse his car into another car, then wejust warn you not to reverse now,' Qalamuddin said with a broad grinhis face, obviously pleased with his modern metaphor.The Department is modelled on a similar government organisationSaudi Arabia and it has recruited thousands of young men, many of thjwith only a minimum madrassa education from Pakistan. The departmis also the Taliban's most effective intelligence agency - a bi"throwback to KHAD, the enormous intelligence agency run by the imunist regime in the 1980s. KHAD, which later changed its nameWAD, employed 15,000 to 30,000 professional spies as well havi100,000 paid informers. 1 Qalamuddin admitted that he has thousandsinformers in the army, government ministries, hospitals and Westernagencies. 'Our staff all have experience in religious issues. And we areindependent organization and we don't take advice from the Justice Mistry or the Supreme Court as to what we should implement. We othe orders of the Amir Mullah Mohammed Omar.'A VANISHED GENDER 107Qalamuddin's edicts are broadcast regularly on Radio Shariat (formerlyRadio Kabul) and cover every aspect of social behaviour for the population(see Appendix 1). One addresses public attendance at sports events,which the Taliban had initially banned. 'All onlookers, while encouragingthe sportsmen, are asked to chant Allah-o-Akbar [God is Great] andrefrain from clapping. In case the game coincides with prayer time, thegame should be interrupted. Both the players and spectators should offerprayers in congregation,' said the edict. Kite-flying, once a favourite pastimein the spring for Kabulis, is still banned as are all sports for women.For the Taliban anyone questioning these edicts, which have no validityin the Koran, is tantamount to questioning Islam itself, even thoughthe Prophet Mohammed's first task was to emancipate women. 'Thesupreme, unmistakable test of Islam was the emancipation of women, firstbeginning to be proclaimed, then — more slowly — on the way to beachieved,' said Ferdinand Braudel. 2 But the Taliban did not allow evenMuslim reporters to question these edicts or to discuss interpretations ofthe Koran. To foreign aid-workers they simply said, 'You are not Muslimso you have no right to discuss Islam.' The Taliban were right, theirinterpretation of Islam was right and everything else was wrong and anexpression of human weakness and a lack of piety. 'The Constitution isthe Sharia so we don't need a constitution. People love Islam and that iswhy they all support the Taliban and appreciate what we are doing,' saidAttorney General Maulvi Jalilullah Maulvizada. 3However the plight of Afghan women and Afghan society as a wholebegan well before the Taliban arrived. Twenty years of continuous warfarehas destroyed Afghan civil society, the clan community and family structurewhich provided an important cushion of relief in an otherwise harsheconomic landscape. Afghanistan has one of the lowest rated indices forthe human condition in the world. The infant mortality rate is 163 deathsper 1,000 births (18 per cent) the highest in the world which comparesto an average of 70/1000 in other developing countries. A quarter of allchildren die before they reach their fifth birthday, compared to one tenththat number in developing countries.A staggering 1,700 mothers out of 100,000 die giving birth. Life expectancyfor men and women is just 43-44 years old, compared to 61 yearsfor people in other developing countries. Only 29 per cent of the populationhas access to health and 12 per cent has access to safe water, comparedto 80 per cent and 70 per cent respectively in developing states.Children die of simple, preventable diseases like measles and diarrhoeabecause there are no health facilities and no clean water. 4Illiteracy was a major problem before the Taliban appeared, affecting90 per cent of girls and 60 per cent of boys. There were huge swathes ofrural Afghanistan where schools had been destroyed in the war and not
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104 ~ TALIBANcut-back in humanitarian aid. However, Mullah Omar and the Kandaharleadership refused to allow an expansion of UN aid activities and eventuallyforced the UN to quit.In the winter of 1998-99 there were several acts of looting and robberyby Taliban soldiers, reflecting the growing indiscipline caused by economichardship. In the worst such incident in Kabul in January 1999, siTaliban soldiers had their right arms and left feet amputated for looting.The authorities then hung the amputated limbs from trees in the cicentre where they could be seen by the public until they rotted. Although;,internal differences increased speculation about serious weakness withinjthe Taliban, which could lead to an intra-Taliban civil war, MulOmar's exalted position and increased powers allowed him to keepcontrol of the movement.Thus the Taliban, like the Mujaheddin before them, had resortedone-man rule with no organizational mechanism to accommodate oiethnic groups or points of view. The struggle between moderate and hardlineTaliban went underground with no Taliban leader willing to contra*'diet Omar or oppose him. Such a situation is more than likely to leadan eventual explosion within the Taliban - an intra-Taliban civil war|which can only once again divide the Pashtuns and bring more sufferito the common people.8A VANISHED GENDER:WOMEN, CHILDREN ANDTALIBAN CULTURENobody ever wants to see the inside of Maulvi Qalamuddin's sparseoffice in the centre of Kabul. Half the population never willanyway, because the Maulvi does not allow women to even enterthe building. A huge Pashtun tribesman with enormous feet and hands,a long thick nose, black eyes and a bushy black beard that touches hisdesk while he talks, Qalamuddin's physique and name generate fear acrossthe city. As head of the Taliban's religious police, the stream of regulationshe issues from this office has dramatically changed the lifestyle ofKabul's once easy-going population and forced Afghan women to disappearentirely from public view.Maulvi Qalamuddin runs the Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi An al-Munkar, or the Department of the Promotion of Virtue and Preventionof Vice. He himself prefers the translation as Department of ReligiousObservances. In the streets, people just call the department's thousandsof young zealots, who walk around with whips, long sticks and kalashnikovs,the religious police and even more derogatory names. The day Ivisited him for a rare interview in the summer of 1997, he had just issuednew regulations which banned women from wearing high heels, makinga noise with their shoes while they walked or wearing make-up. 'Stylishdress and decoration of women in hospitals is forbidden. Women are dutyboundto behave with dignity, to walk calmly and refrain from hittingtheir shoes on the ground, which makes noises,' the edict read. How thezealots could even see women's make-up or their shoes, considering thatall women were now garbed in the head to toe burkha was mystifying (seeAppendix 1).The new edict formalized previous restrictions on disallowing women
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