Old video of Taliban fighters laughing about women politicians goes viral
The video is part of a documentary on the Taliban shot early this year. Hind Hassan, the woman journalist who interviewed the Taliban fighters, was asked to wear a traditional blue Afghan burqa for the interview.
As the world is cautiously watching the shift of power in Afghanistan with the Taliban 2.0 emerging as a somewhat moderate version of Taliban 1.0 that reigned in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, an old video of Taliban fighters breaking into laughter on the question of women contesting elections has now gone viral. The video is part of Vice News's special documentaries from Taliban territory.
A small clip from one of the episodes of the documentary has now gone viral on social media as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was complete on August 15 with the fighters entering Kabul. In their first address to the press, the Taliban leadership on Tuesday made it clear that the Taliban have changed in the last 20 years. Though their ideologies remain the same, the group has now matured and do not want any rivalry and revenge. Between 1996 and 2001, when the Talibs reigned the once-progressive country, the women were robbed of their rights with girls' schools closing down and women were forced to leave their jobs. Without going into the specifics, the Taliban leadership on Tuesday said women will have freedom under Islamic law, It has been indicated that the group will not make burqa mandatory in the country, but the hijab will.
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In the viral clip, Vice News's Hind Hassan interacts with a few Taliban leaders who at the beginning of this year expressed hope that the day when Afghanistan will have a Taliban president is not far. On the question of women's rights in a possible Taliban rule in Afghanistan, their reaction was affirmative. "Does that mean people will be allowed to vote in women politicians?" Hind Hassan asks. The leaders break out in laughter and then asked her to stop filming the video.
The person was identified as Commander Khatab. Hind Hassan was the only woman in the crew that went to the Taliban land, She was asked to wear a traditional blue Afghan burqa, Vice's report said.
According to the previous rules of the Taliban, women were cloistered and were not allowed to have any public appearance, public life. A rerun of the same is apprehended as Afghan women are not ready to buy the Taliban's promise of women's rights as several reports of teh Taliban already restricting women have emerged from other provinces of Afghanistan. In some northern provinces, captured a month ago, women have been asked not to wear revealing slippers and not come outside their houses without any male, reports said. Women employees of two banks in Kandahar and Herat have been relieved of their duties so that male members can replace them, reports said.