The militant group's new directives appear to emulate the harsher rules from the late 1990s.
Taliban hard-liners are establishing several repressive rules that call back to the militant group's rule during the late 1990s. One such directive is the ban on girls from going to school beyond six grade. In addition, women have been prevented from boarding planes if they are unaccompanied by a male relative. Men and women are also prohibited from visiting parks on the same day and the use of mobile phones in universities is prohibited.
According to Fox News, the Taliban hard-liners are also cracking down on international media broadcasts, including the Pashto and Persian BBC services, which offer news in two languages of Afghanistan. Both have been off the air since the weekend. The Taliban has also banned foreign drama series.
The recent repression on Afghanistan by the Taliban has the international community concerned that the militant group might impose harsher rules such as that in the 1990s, especially following the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021. Just this month, the Taliban suddenly issued an edict banning girls from going back to school. The move was a 180-degree turn from the Taliban's promise to uphold more progressive measures when it comes to women's rights.
The United Nations has also called the crackdown on international media broadcasts "another repressive step against the people of Afghanistan." According to the BBC Pashto service, it was a a worrying development at a time of uncertainty and turbulence."
"More than 6 million Afghans consume the BBC's independent and impartial journalism on TV every week and it is crucial they are not denied access to it in the future," BBC World Services' head of languages Tarik Kafala remarked through a statement released on Sunday.
The Taliban hard-liners are also issuing edicts on Afghan men. On Monday, members of the Taliban vice and virtue ministry were seen outside government ministries, ordering male employees who did not have traditional turbans and beards to go home. These traditional turbans and bears are a symbol of piety for the Taliban. One employee who spoke under the condition of anonymity said that he was unsure if and when he would be allowed back to work.
A senior Taliban official and Afghans close to Taliban leadership reported that the transition back to the old ways of the militant group, which resulted in new, stricter measures was the result of a three-day meeting last week in Kandahar, which is the birthplace of the Taliban. They believe that the new laws come from the demands of Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's hard-line supreme leader. Akhundzada appears to be trying to push the country back to the way it was in the 1990s, when the militant group prevented women from education and public spaces and outlawed the media and sports.
Akhunzada's opposition towards a more progressive Afghanistan comes as the health of the Taliban-appointed prime minister Hasan Akhund, who is also a hard-liner, is reportedly deteriorating. Akhund failed to meet with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the Chinese diplomat's surprise visit to Kabul.
But younger Afghans are protesting for their rights. On Saturday, dozens of female Afghans demonstrated in Kabul, calling upon the Taliban to allow them back in school. According to the Financial Times, brave teachers who defy the Taliban continue to run schools in secret. Teachers are volunteers who called their former students to tell them about the school.
"When we understood that schools for girls were not going to reopen, we started this project," one third year student who was excluded from her course when the Taliban took over in September, said. "We don't want for these girls what happened to our mothers, who were not allowed to go to school."
