Since the return of the Taliban to power on 15 August 2021, its supreme leader did not appear in the public; rather occasionally made some audio tapes briefing unknown figures. Mullah Hibatullah, the leader of Taliban, has no video or picture. There is only one photo of him and its credibility is also under quotation. In the last two and half years that the Taliban seized power, Hibatullah has neither been photographed in public nor delivered a live video speech. The best he could do is to release audio messages as he did recently and spoke about the women’s rights situation.
In a speech at a gathering among other Taliban leaders in Kandahar province, he adopted an anti-western posture as well as claimed that the rights of women in Afghanistan have been fully preserved.
In his speech he said that he released a degree containing six principles to observe women’s rights including ban on marrying a woman by force, don’t violate Mahr, (money for the bride only), don’t marry a widow by force and give women their heritage.
“Our struggle against the western countries has not ended yet and we have to implement Islamic law which they oppose and against the Sharia hudud (an Islamic method of punishment of the offenders and criminals),” he added.
He said that if the Taliban implements hudud and stoned a woman in public or lashes people in public, these are in contrast with democracy and the west will stand against them. “We have to struggle and make efforts to implement hudud and we need to fight and struggle against the West and their un-Islamic demands,” he added.
This comes as nearly seven months ago, the Taliban supreme leader in another audio recording expressed desire to have good ties with the world, particularly with the Islamic countries. He also mentioned that the Taliban will never interfere into internal affairs of any neighboring countries and beyond.
Not a single word regarding women’s rights to work and education
But the most frustrating point is that the Taliban leader did not mention any statement regarding women’s rights to work and girls’ rights to education. People, especially the Afghan women are expecting to do something different from the Taliban leader, especially about their rights to work and education. However, such statements not only fail to alleviate the concern but it adds to these anxieties and worries.
Anisa Ahmadzai, an Afghan women’s rights activist countered Hibatullah statements and said that he doesn’t know the ground reality in Afghanistan where women and girls are deprived of their normal and basic rights which is education and work. “Sir, we, the Afghan women have been deprived of our basic rights that Allah the Almighty has given us. Education is obligatory for men and women, but under your (Hibatullah) rule, the Afghan women and girls were stopped from pursuing education,” she added.
She also said that the Taliban even banned girls above sixth grade from going to schools, and she called it “shameful and un-lamaic” practice.
Meanwhile, the Taliban also arrested dozens of girls and women from across Kabul city for alleged dress code violations or not observing the Taliban’s hijab requirement. It has been also reported that the Taliban tortured these female detainees and released them after getting guarantees from their family members.
Perennial question; Why Taliban supreme leader yet to reveal his face
The perennial question has always been why the Taliban supreme leader has yet to reveal his face to the people and what logical reason could be behind this action. This is important for the Taliban leader to engage in face-to-face engagement with the people in order to earn their trust and confidence. Right now, many people even doubt if there is any supreme leader, despite him having spoken in recent audio tapes.
The Afghans have all the right to think like that because the supreme leader and founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar had released Eid messages for two years but later found out that two years ago he died in one of hospitals in Pakistan. So, who released these statements, and why the Taliban hid his dead among the people. So, the same applies for the current Taliban leader: there could be no existence, but someone is just releasing audio speeches relating to the supreme leader.
Another issue that the supreme leader doesn’t want to show to the public is called insecurity, according to his spokesman, but the Taliban has already claimed that security has been improved. The Taliban must stop taking credit for the security situation while their supreme leader can’t appear in public due to security issues.
