Taliban’s war with people’s morals
In today’s world, human relations are mostly regulated by law. But it has not always been like this. In some societies, a complex set of mostly unwritten moral codes formed over centuries, is still the most important regulator of political, social and personal relations. It is called morality. Morality is the spirit of laws, and, in societies like Afghanistan, is more paramount than law. It is circulating in the body of traditions and customs. Therefore, in Afghanistan when political groups come to power, they come into conflict with the traditions and morals of the people rather than worrying about changing laws. In fact, any group that conquers power can change laws and introduce new ones without much resistance from the people, but no regime has yet been able to displace moral codes with their own laws.
Changing morals is much more difficult than abolishing laws because laws are conventional and formal. In our country, most of the downtrodden, those who have often suffered at hands of law enforcement, have not shown much reaction to the Taliban’s suspension of various laws. But violation of people’s morality is a very sensitive issue and if their violation becomes frequent and widespread, it will result in mass revolt.
Morality is the defensive shield of the masses against political regimes. People consider morality as something sacred, which protects themselve, family, relatives, and tribe. Morality provides a protective shield to people against invasive political regimes. Therefore, protecting moral codes gives people some sense of mental serenity. Therefore, after their military conquests and seizure of political power, autocratic regimes begin wars against people’s morality. In Afghanistan today, the Taliban’s struggle against “moral corruption” is a struggle for power in the last bastion of the people.
In August 2021, after the long war and the Doha deal, the Taliban captured political power. They purged non-Taliban political forces from political administration and media. They declared all political organizing as well as political and civil activity to be illegal. For their Talibanization of society, they declared war on people’s morality. The war against people’s morality is the most complicated and difficult part of the war between autocracies and the people. It is fought in the bodies and minds of the people. In this war, morality is a double-edged sword. The Taliban wear the mask of “moral” police and resort to using religious sayings and traditional values to demoralize people and deprive them of the ability to resist and act collectively. On the other hand, people rely on collective moral values to protect their interests and engage in collective resistance.
Under a veneer of religion, the Taliban moral police is a political weapon. The Taliban’ moral war targets those who have a high capacity to oppose the Taliban. Then they target individuals and groups who are distant from the Taliban’s narrative of life and politics.
In the past two years, we have heard many painful accounts of the Taliban moral police’s behaviour with the people of Afghanistan, especially women. The Taliban trample all civil norms and use the pretext of morality and sharia to destroy the political, cultural, educational, and social institutions of Afghanistan. They say their most important mission is the moral reform of society. It appears that their religious police, intelligence, and all their governing institutions are focused on their moral reform of society. However, what is happening in Taliban detention centres is nothing but the Taliban’s war with people’s morality and an attempt to break their last stronghold.
Let us see a few recent examples:
On June 25, Zan Times published a shocking report about victims of the Taliban’s moral police. According to that report, the Taliban abducted 16-year-old Zahra from a street in Kabul in January and released her after 14 days. When she returned home, she reported to her mother what had happened to her by the Taliban moral police during her detention, saying, “I am dishonoured.”
The Taliban abducts a 16-year-old from the street without notifying her family, and keeps her in an unknown location, away from the reach of her family, human rights organizations, and any third-party observer for two weeks, and then releases her. Let’s assume that the Taliban did not bother her during those 14 days, that they even offered “ethics and morality lessons” for her, and taught her the Taliban way of life, provided her a soft bed and warm food, and did not sexually assault her. But the message received by her family, relatives, and friends is not that of moral lessons, but humiliation and the ugliest moral behaviour.
How is the Taliban justified in abducting a 16-year-old girl from the street without the knowledge of her family and keeping her for two weeks in an unknown place to teach moral lessons? The broken spirit of 16-year-old Zahra after that experience and her suicide speaks of the brutal treatment of the Taliban. In Afghanistan, due to shame and stigma, rape is rarely spoken about openly. “I was dishonoured, I was disgraced, I was destroyed” and other similar phrases are the clearest possible expressions for many victims of rape and sexual harassment. Some victims who are more politically literate and aware of the importance of sharing their experiences in Taliban prisons have spoken in more detail about the “ethics and morality” of the Taliban.
Lailuma Daulatzai, a civil society activist, said recently in an interview with Afghanistan International that the “Taliban in prison cut her thighs with a knife and sprinkled salt on her wounds.” Daulatzai said that 16 Taliban fighters tortured her in prison. The Taliban, who claim to protect the morals of society, do not allow women to travel anywhere without a mahram, they have banned work and education so that the morals of the society will not be harmed, then, in a prison, they cut a woman’s thigh with a knife and sprinkle salt on her wounds. Physical torture in prison is not a new thing and sprinkling salt on a prisoner’s wound is not a Taliban innovation. Torture exists even in seemingly democratic regimes. But, in Afghanistan, the Taliban is first regime that openly engage in the systematic torture and violation of women in its war against people’s morality and personal sanctity.
Zarmina Paryani, who has experienced Taliban prison and torture chambers, said in a video published on social media on July 10 that the Taliban stripped her of her clothes while in prison and then took pictures with her.
Rukhshana media and the Guardian published report that the Taliban raped a women’s rights activist in prison and recorded their crime with a mobile phone and later sent it to the victim. According to the reports, the Taliban forced the victim to not cover her face during the rape and to look at the camera.
The moral police of the Taliban recording a rape is done with the aim of morally and psychologically suppressing women and taking their war to people’s home and family. With these behaviour, the Taliban are gambling with their political future. Those who apparently won political power by military means, suicide bombings, beheading, burning schools, and killing students and teachers are not able to destroy the morals of the people to make them obedient. The moral suppression of people may destroy people psychologically and even physically, but people’s morality is much sturdier and Taliban is not able to completely destroy it. Instead, this war with people’s morality, culture, and beliefs system provides the seeds for Taliban’s political defeat.
Younus Negah is a researcher and writer from Afghanistan who is currently in exile in Turkey.
