RASC News Agency: The Telegraph reported on Saturday, November 23, that a senior official from the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has deemed some decrees issued by the group’s leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, as neither “logical” nor “Islamic.” Citing its sources, the report highlighted escalating internal disputes over the leader’s increasingly repressive policies targeting women. The unnamed Taliban official stated that most of these orders disproportionately focus on restricting women, with some lacking both “logic” and “Sharia compliance.” The report also recalled earlier criticism from Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s Deputy Foreign Minister, who had publicly disapproved of the leadership’s stance on women.
Several months ago, Stanikzai remarked, “Any leader, governor, minister, or commander who does not live among their people becomes disconnected from them. Such isolation inevitably leads to unstable and short-lived governance.” While he refrained from naming anyone directly, his comments were widely interpreted as criticism of Mullah Hibatullah, the group’s secretive leader. In a similar vein, a senior official from the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense disclosed that dissatisfaction and internal rifts are growing within the group. Speaking anonymously, the official said, “Most people are enraged by the oppressive laws introduced by (the Taliban leader), and this anger has even reached some officials.” He further added, “He (Mullah Hibatullah) has cultivated an environment of fear, falsely linking it to religion, which silences dissent entirely.”
However, Afghanistani women assert that these political schisms within the Taliban have done nothing to alleviate their suffering. They report that the Taliban’s oppressive policies against women and girls remain firmly in place. Women who resist these draconian rules are frequently subjected to arrest, imprisonment, and torture. This development follows a string of reports about infighting among senior Taliban figures. Just a few months ago, during a visit to Ghor province, Mullah Hibatullah himself urged Taliban officials to set aside their differences, though these appeals appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
