KANDAHAR Sand-colored mountains rise in the distance like a camel’s hump. Blue, yellow and green fabrics flutter in the wind as women pass by in their full-body burqas. Men walk in pink tunics and black turbans.
This ancient city in the middle of the desert is Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban who rule Afghanistan.
This is what it looked like at the end of last year when visited the city:
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan. The capital has sometimes been located here, sometimes in the more liberal Kabul.
Right in the center of Kandahar is a building complex surrounded by high concrete walls, closely guarded by the heavily armed Taliban. When the gate opens for a moment, an armored car can be seen inside.
The mysterious leader of the Taliban has settled here Hibatullah Akhundzada. That’s what the locals say. The man has not been seen in public, and there is only one picture of him published years ago.
The picture is at the beginning of this story, and it can also be found on the internet. Nowadays, the beard of a man in his seventies must have already turned gray.
Many doubt whether Hibatullah even exists.
The Taliban is an extremist Islamist movement that has taken away the right to study and go to school and almost all work from women and girls.
The movement was in power the last time in the 1990s, until the United States and its allies occupied the country in 2001. The allies’ long operation in Afghanistan began. It ended in 2021, and the Taliban rose to power again.
The movement assured that it had changed from the dark years of the 1990s. From that time, we remember the news about amputations of limbs as punishment for various crimes.
The now male-dominated Taliban promised to guarantee women’s rights. Girls should continue in school.
Half a year after the new rise to power, in March 2022, the movement canceled its speech. Girls’ schools would remain closed. Soon, Afghan women could no longer even go to the parks. They have to cover their faces again, and the universities were also closed to them.
Even within the Taliban there were expressions of disappointment. The representatives of the administration in Kabul would clearly have wanted the schools to open so that the Taliban regime would finally be recognized internationally and treated like any other state.
Where did the new, strict rules come from? From here in Kandahar.
Excluding women and girls from education and work was a message from the Taliban’s top leader, Hibatullah, to the government in Kabul: I am in charge. This is what the researcher says Ibrahim Bahiss.
Bahiss works for the conflict-focused research organization International Crisis Group and specializes in the Taliban.
– The Taliban extremists did not like the way the government in Kabul marched forward with the changes, Bahiss says by phone from Melbourne, Australia.
Old age and a strict division between men and women can be seen in Kandahar. In this video, the men spend a moment of prayer:
New rules began to trickle down from Kandahar. Governors and ministers were changed.
In Hibatullah’s opinion, the ministers in Kabul made too many concessions to Western countries, Bahiss explains.
Hibatullah pulled the strings from Kandahar, and no one in Kabul could defy the absolute leadership based on the Taliban’s power structures.
International actors have wondered whether it is even worth talking to the ministers in Kabul anymore, if the real power is in Kandahar.
The leader strives for an aura of mystery
However, Hibatullah’s speeches are not simply marched like that.
By avoiding publicity and meetings, Hibatullah seeks the same aura of mystery and charisma as Mullah Omar once upon a time, says researcher Bahiss.
Mullah Omar founded the Taliban and was its leader in the 1990s.
The shrine shown in this video was important to Omar, and so is it to Hibatullah. An employee of Pyhätö Zikrullah Akhundzada it seems that men are united by humility and long-suffering.
Akhundzada let photograph the outside of the sanctuary:
Very little is known about Hibatullah. He became the leader of the Taliban during the war in 2016, after the US killed the previous leader in a drone strike in Pakistan.
Hibatullah, a native of Kandahar, is reportedly married with children; he is said to have sacrificed one of his sons as a suicide bomber during the war.
Hibatullah closely follows what is reported about him
Hibatullah is described as living in his own bubble in Kandahar and not knowing much about the world. It is known that the Prime Minister of Qatar is the only foreigner who has been able to speak to him Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani last in May.
A local reporter now wants to deny Hibatullah’s isolation.
Sadiqullah Afghan received an invitation from the Taliban about nine months ago to an event, the purpose of which was not revealed in advance.
Afghan is a journalist from Kandahar.
– When we arrived with four other journalists, our biometric data was collected and cameras, phones and even pens and notepads were taken away from us, Afghan says in his office right next to Hibatullah’s headquarters.
Then two Taliban brought an old man to the stage. The man was Hibatullah. At least that’s what the journalists were told.
At least the speeches were straight from the mouth of the Taliban. First the old man ransacked the media, then he defied the West.
Hibatullah had claimed in his speech that the media was spreading false information about the Taliban.
– He also said that you in the media always say that I don’t exist. Now you see I’m here, Afghan recalls Hibatullah’s words.
The white flag of the Taliban flies on the roof of the shrine.
The Taliban have combined religion and the use of power for their own purposes.
According to Afghani, Hibatullah spoke for more than an hour.
– He said that he does not accept the order of the international community. Even if the entire government agreed with the rest of the world, he said he was ready to stand alone on the opposite side, Afghan says.
The Taliban has severely restricted media activities and arrested local and foreign journalists. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that an Afghan speaks freely.
Religious scholars in Kandahar are close to the leader
Hibatullah has a religious background and has found his allies in that group. One of them agrees to talk about Hibatullah.
She is Muhammad Omar Khitabi.
The Taliban respects girls and women, Muhammad Omar Khitabi claims.
A bearded man ran an Islamic radio channel already during the previous government.
– The supreme leader meets religious scholars. He travels to other provinces and also meets well-known persons, Khitabi describes Hibatullah’s networks.
Girls’ education is a polarizing topic
Khitabi claims that there is no opposition within the Taliban to the education of girls and women at any level.
However, boys are easier to see and take pictures of than girls here in old Kandahar.
Only men can be seen in front of this Koranic school.
According to researcher Bahiss, modern education is still a politicized and polarizing issue, especially in rural Afghanistan. Still, opposition, especially towards girls’ education, has decreased, according to Bahiss.
– Many people understand the benefit of their daughters being able to read and write, he says.
Even within the framework of Islamic law, it is difficult to find a justification for not allowing girls and women to study. As a religious scholar of Hibatullah, you would think he would know.
According to Bahiss, the reason for his ban on education may be that the top leader was afraid that the Taliban regime would appear too similar to the previous government supported by Western countries.
For the Taliban, the most important thing seems to be the internal unity of the movement and the fact that the members do not flee to the ranks of the even more radical ISIS, which is carrying out attacks in Afghanistan.
Is it possible, then, that among the Kabul ministers there are even hopes for Hibatullah’s ouster and a new, more open-minded leader? That is difficult to answer.
However, it is almost certain that there will be no change in the position of women and girls as long as Hibatullah leads the Taliban.