Islamic Scholars To Decide If Girls Will Go To School In Afghanistan: Taliban leader

Mumbai: A senior Taliban leader has said the role of women in Afghanistan would be decided by a council of Islamic scholars.

“Our ulema (scholars) will decide whether girls are allowed to go to school or not,” Waheedullah Hashimi, who has access to the group’s decision-making, told Reuters.

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“They will decide whether they should wear hijab, burqa, or only (a) veil plus abaya or something, or not. That is up to them.”

Hijab is generally a scarf covering the head, the burqa is a full covering cloth whereas an abaya is a cloth that leaves the face open.

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On Tuesday, Zabihullah, the Taliban’s chief mujahid, told a news conference in Kabul that women would be allowed to work and study and “be very active in society but within the framework of Islam.”

During their rule from 1996-2001, guided by Islamic law, the Taliban barred women from working. Girls were not allowed to go to school and women were required to wear a burqa to go out, and only when a man was with a relative.

Rule breakers sometimes faced humiliation and public beatings by the Taliban’s religious police.

Despite its surge across Afghanistan in recent weeks, Hashimi said even the Taliban had not expected to enter Kabul so soon. But chaos ensued in the capital after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, he said.

“Therefore our leadership ordered our Taliban to Kabul city. There was no one to resist. No one at all. So we entered and everything was laid kind of empty. So we occupied and now we are in control of Kabul city.”

(With Reuters Inputs)

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