EDITORIAL: Taliban have adopted Afghanistan’s 1964 constitution that grants women the right to vote after they decided that the country must have a constitution so that they can become de jure rulers of their country. But the adoption of that piece of law is delicately predicated on two important caveats – its adoption would be for a temporary period, and anything in the text found to be in conflict with “Sharia law” and the principles of the Islamic Emirate would be discarded. The question remains whether the adoption of the 1964 constitution move will earn the Taliban government international recognition. Since the said constitution had authorised the rule by a monarch it may not help the international call for an all-inclusive Taliban-led government in Afghanistan. The monarchs don’t share power with others. And as the debate on the issue of inclusivity gathers momentum, a kind of counterpoint is being aired by some circles. How do you expect that the Taliban should share state power with the parties and groups they fought for as many as 20 years? Did you expect or imagine Imam Ruhullah Khomeini to include in his set-up some elements of the Reza Shah Pehlavi government although the Shah-appointee prime minister Shahpur Bakhtiar, who was replaced by Mehdi Bazargan following the advent of the Iranian revolution, was known as a long-time nationalist politician and a vocal Shah critic? To the extent that the Taliban government has decided to have a constitution it is a positive development. The 1964 constitution had ushered in nearly a decade of parliamentary democracy until the king was overthrown in 1973. Will it do so now as well? Have Taliban decided to revive the 1964 constitution only to win international recognition? Is it that grant of right of vote to women going to be a permanent feature of Taliban rule in Afghanistan? Unfortunately, however, these and some other questions with regard to Afghanistan have no clear answers. Insofar as the world community is concerned, it must lose sight of the fact that today’s Taliban are vastly different from those who ruled this landlocked country between 1996 and 2001. During their previous rule, TV channels were banned and women were not allowed to work. It is a fact that media outlets continue to operate and women are able to work as journalists after Taliban takeover of Kabul. That schools, universities and other education centres are open for both male and female students is also a fact. In other words, the signs of change of policy on the part of the Taliban government are discernable. While looking at the role of women in Afghanistan, one needs to factor in the Afghan culture, which is essentially tribal in nature and amenable to change slowly and gradually.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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