RASC News Agency: In the wake of revelations exposing moral turpitude and sexual impropriety perpetrated by Taliban officials against women, girls, and adolescent boys in the nation, Mawlawi Ziaulhaq Karimi, purportedly at the helm of the Taliban for Balkh University, finds himself ousted on charges of moral degeneracy and inappropriate liaisons with a woman. This Taliban functionary, who surreptitiously assumed the mantle of university leadership in Balkh a year prior, suffered from a dearth of academic credentials. The Taliban strategically positioned him in this role to combat administrative malfeasance and thwart moral degradation within the university.
Upon the Taliban’s assumption of control in Afghanistan, they systematically displaced numerous erudite professors and staff from governmental roles, particularly within universities, supplanting them with individuals aligned with the Taliban. These appointees frequently engage in theological discourses with students and proffer guidance on averting moral decadence. Despite the Taliban’s avowed intent to install their clerics in specialized administrative roles to curtail administrative and moral corruption, a pattern has emerged during their more than two years in power, revealing a prevalence of sexual assault, moral debauchery, and licentiousness involving the group’s members and officials. These occurrences have become focal points in widespread media coverage and discussions on social media platforms.
Footage juxtaposed with numerous instances of moral corruption involving Taliban officials vividly portrays their flagrant moral decay and complicity in various cases of sexual assault. The deposed head of the Taliban for Balkh University, subsequent to the exposure of his telephonic discussions with an unrelated woman on explicit matters were shared om social media, has been ousted by the Taliban’s purification commission. Reports emanating from the university corroborate that Mawlawi Ziaulhaq Karimi had previously coerced a former female professor at the university into sexual extortion.
While, prior to this incident, the Taliban had turned a blind eye to the moral transgressions of their officials, refraining from dismissals or penalties in the wake of moral corruption, information disclosed subsequent to the exposure of moral impropriety and illicit relationships involving the head of Balkh University indicates that the Taliban’s purification commission, in a leaked statement to the media, acknowledged the allegations of Ziaulhaq Karimi’s improper relationship. Consequently, he has been relieved of his role as the head of Balkh University.
Since assuming power in Afghanistan, the Taliban, not only proscribed girls from receiving education, rationalizing this cultural shift on religious grounds, but also indulged in the most egregious instances of moral decay over the past two years. Despite the dissemination of documented audiovisual evidence of their moral corruption, the leadership of the Taliban has taken no action to align with Islamic Sharia laws regarding these individuals.
While this group forbids girls above the sixth grade from attending school and has shuttered university doors, citing a pretext of “preventing moral corruption,” the Ministry of Education within this group is making an unparalleled effort to establish religious schools for both boys and girls. These educational institutions are overseen by certain clerics affiliated with this group. Alongside concerns regarding the proliferation of religious extremism within these schools, there exists a profound apprehension concerning the prevalence of moral corruption and sexual assault on young girls and boys.
Earlier, the United Nations Human Rights Council, drawing attention to the escalating sexual assaults perpetrated by Taliban authorities on schoolgirls and boys in the religious schools of this group, asserted in a report that they have probed alarming incidents of sexual abuse against children in these institutions. However, victims of these incidents, driven by fear, shame, and societal norms, only disclose a fraction of these ethical transgressions.
The UN report states:” Families and relatives of the victims, apprehensive about damage to their status and social standing, conceal these incidents and appalling cases. In most instances, officials of the Taliban group also impede the disclosure of these events.” The report further Indicates that Taliban authorities intimidate the families of the victims, suppressing any expression of opinion about the sexual abuse of their children in schools.
