Mufti Mahmood Zakeri, one of the participants of the Taliban’s Ulema gathering, called on the group to establish universities along with seminaries. On the third day of the gathering, Zakeri said that religious scholars are not against modern sciences.
Zakeri said that the Taliban should pay attention to the issue of education, as per Taliban-controlled media organization, Bakhtar News Agency.
He added that even during the 3rd century (Islamic era), when the West was “absolutely wild”, Muslims had universities. He emphasized that Muslims are the founders of modern sciences.
Zakeri said that now infidels are using modern sciences as a military and intellectual weapon “against us”.
Over the past three days, Zakeri is the second cleric to speak about the importance of education. Sayeed Nasrullah Vaezi from Bamiyan province too supported girls’ education and called for reopening of girls’ schools during the Ulema gathering.
Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, advised Taliban to engage with other predominantly Muslim countries with experience in promoting women and girls’ rights, as guaranteed in international law, in that religious context.
Bachelet, who was speaking at the urgent debate on women and girls in Afghanistan at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva earlier today, added that the recent country visit by an Organization of Islamic Cooperation delegation is a significant step in this direction.
She asked the Taliban to set a firm date for the opening of secondary schools for girls, and to ensure quality education, without discrimination, and resources for teachers.
She noted that since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, women and girls are experiencing the most significant and rapid roll-back in enjoyment of their rights across the board in decades. “Their future will be even darker, unless something changes, quickly,” she added.
Recalling her visit to the country in March this year, Bachelet said that the Taliban had promised that they would honour their human rights obligations, as far as consistent with Islamic sharia law. “Yet, despite these assurances, we are witnessing the progressive exclusion of women and girls from the public sphere and their institutionalised, systematic oppression,” she said.
Bachelet added that as the de-facto authority exercising effective control, Taliban have the obligation to eliminate discrimination against women and ensure women’s right to equal participation in civic and public life, including politics and decision-making.
She said that the women in Afghanistan want direct, in-person, dialogue with the de facto authorities and urged the Taliban to engage in meaningful dialogue with them and remove restrictions of women’s freedom of movement. Bachelet also spoke about the need to re-establish independent authorities to receive complaints from the public and protect victims of gender-based violence.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights sought concerted efforts from the international community to pressurise the Taliban to restore, protect and promote the rights of Afghan women and girls.
She added that it is pertinent to make sure that human rights, including women’s rights and concerns, are at the centre of all humanitarian assessments and programming.
Women under the Taliban are currently facing oppression in their day-to-day life with restrictions on movement, dress, no access to education and rolling back of their achievements over the past 20 years.
Maulawi Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a participant of the Taliban’s Ulema gathering in Kabul, said today that geography can be possessed by suicide attackers and car bombs, but people’s hearts can’t be won with these tactics.
Referring to the Eid Al-fitr occasion, when the Taliban had announced Eid a day before the other Islamic countries, he said that religious scholars first chanted the Eid prayers, and then, upheld their fast again. He called on the Taliban not to issue irrelevant fatwas.
During his speech, he added that the “current Islamic government is unique, but we know that it can’t be like prophet Mohammad’s system”.
On the first day of the event, Maulawi Habibullah Haqqani, chairman of the Taliban’s gathering, asked participants to obey Hibatullah Akhundazada with “firm resolve”.
Most of the speakers of the Ulema gathering have emphasized on supporting the Taliban government.
All participants of the Taliban’s Ulema gathering pledged allegiance to the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada on Friday, according to Bakhtar, a Taliban-controlled news agency.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, Taliban’s acting interior minister, at the beginning of the second day’s meeting, announced the presence of Hibatullah Akhundzada at the Loya Jirga tent in Kabul, the venue of the gathering.
However, no photo or video recording of the meeting depicting the presence of the group’s leader has been released, so far. The Taliban has banned reporters from attending the gathering.
The presence of Akhundzada is significant as no photos or videos of the group’s supreme leader have been released in the ten months since the Taliban's dominance over Afghanistan.
To add to the mystery, recently, former Afghan spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil, published a Taliban video and claimed that the group portrayed a man named Mullah Hamdullah as Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Based on his sources, Mr. Nabil claimed that Mullah Hamdullah was the same person who delivered a speech during Eid al -Fitr on April 30th earlier this year and appeared in the role of the Taliban’s supreme leader at the Hakimia School of Kandahar last year.
The former spy chief said that the same person may appear in the Taliban Ulema gathering under the false guise of Mullah Hibatullah.
The Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, emphasised that change in Afghanistan can only be achieved through cooperation with the group during a meeting with Thomas West, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan, on Thursday.
He added that putting pressure on the Taliban will not be effective and that the Taliban have prevented terrorist threats from Afghanistan.
The spokesperson of the Taliban's foreign ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, stated via Twitter that Muttaqi’s conversation with the US representative about working with the Taliban to achieve changes in Afghanistan "must be accompanied by a positive spirit and cooperation and they should not resort to pressure tactics.”
The Taliban's foreign ministry quoted West as saying that "the United States is in favour of engagement, a stable Afghanistan and does not support armed opposition [in this country]."
The United States has asked the Taliban to respect human rights, especially the rights of women in Afghanistan, and to agree to the formation of an inclusive government in the country. Washington wants the Taliban to cut ties with major terrorist groups that are currently present in Afghanistan.
After the recent earthquake in the southeast region of Afghanistan, the US government not only provided 55 million dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan but also started negotiations with the Taliban on the creation of a mechanism for using Afghanistan's frozen foreign exchange reserves by the group.
Representatives from the White House, US Treasury Department and United States Agency for International Development were present during the two-day meeting in Doha in addition to West and others.
Maulawi Habibullah Haqqani, chairman of the Taliban’s Ulema gathering held in Kabul today, asked participants to obey the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada with a "firm resolve”. Haqqani added that their leader is “an example of the Rashidun Caliphs".
According to Haqqani "disagreement with the government is an impermissible act”. However, the Taliban’s supreme leader wasn’t present at the gathering.
The Taliban’s three-day Ulema gathering kicked off on Thursday, June 30, at the Loya Jirga tent with the participation of 3,500 tribal elders and Ulema, as claimed by the group.
The first day started with the speech of Mullah Hassan Akhund, the Taliban’s PM. “Those who fought with Mujahideen [Taliban], were forgiven, but they didn’t stop and are still making problems for the nation”, he said in his speech, pointing to the armed opposition groups. In fact, most of the speakers of the gathering, emphasized on supporting the Taliban government. Mullah Hassan Akhund said that supporting the Taliban government is the responsibility of Ulema and tribal elders.
Haqqani also asked Taliban officials to have the will to serve Islam and Afghanistan sincerely. He emphasized on the obedience of the people to the government and said that “obedience in an Islamic government is an important principle and we must obey pious elders with sincerity and honesty in all affairs”.
While the Ulema gathering was held without the presence of the media, sources tell Afghanistan International that journalists were gathered at the Intercontinental hotel, within proximity of the gathering. It was only the Taliban spokespersons who provided them with information from the gathering.
According to the rules of the Ulema meeting, independent journalists are not allowed to enter the Loya Jirga tent and only Taliban-controlled media have the right to keep audio recordings from the meeting.
According to Information which has been leaked to the media, the talks have centred around supporting the Taliban government, calling the resistance against the group a rebellion, supporting independence and commitment to peace and national interest.
Bakhtar News Agency, the Taliban-controlled media organisation, have alleged that Maulawi Abdul Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of the Supreme Court, asked the Ulema to covey to the public at mosques, villages, and madrassas that resistance against the Islamic government is prohibited.