As of: 09/28/2021 5:20 p.m.
A shaving ban applies to barbers in the Afghan province of Helmand. According to a report, women are no longer admitted to the Kabul University: After taking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban are tightening their course significantly.
The Taliban have banned barbers from trimming and shaving their beards in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan. This corresponds to the Sharia, the Islamic law, it said in a decree of the local authority for vice and virtue created by the Islamist group, which was issued on Monday at barbershops in Laschkarga. “Anyone who violates the regulations will be punished and no one has the right to complain,” says the order to the barbers. The penalties to be expected were not specified.
During their first rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban had insisted on a rigorous interpretation of Islam. Among other things, they demanded that men let their beards stand.
Apparently no more women are admitted to the University of Kabul
New rules apparently also apply at the University of Kabul: The new Taliban Rector is for the time being banning both female students and teachers from Afghanistan’s most prestigious educational institution, as the New York Times reported. The new university rector Mohammed Ashraf Ghairat announced on Twitter that women could not come to study or work “unless there is a real Islamic environment for everyone”.
Last week, the previous head of Kabul University, the pharmacology professor Mohammed Osman Baburi, was dismissed in favor of Ghairat. Even under the last Taliban regime in the 1990s, women and girls were excluded from all education.
Meanwhile, the Taliban announced that they would temporarily apply the constitution from the time of King Sahir Shah, who was deposed in 1973, in Afghanistan. Accordingly, the king was not accountable to either the people or parliament. Articles that contradict Islam are excluded from the old constitution, said Taliban Justice Minister Abdul Hakim Sharai, according to a statement from his ministry. The constitution of 1964 should therefore apply for the period of the transitional government.
No elections in prospect so far
The Taliban have not promised any elections since they came to power in mid-August. Its transitional government, which currently has almost 50 members, consists only of men from the Taliban environment.
The Taliban reject the previous Afghan constitution, which was passed in 2004. It is considered to be one of the best constitutions in the region because of the rights and freedoms enshrined in it for citizens. Among other things, this provides for an elected president. So far, the Taliban have also rejected this.
Worry about tough regiment
The Taliban had taken power across Afghanistan in mid-August. The radical Islamic group had initially announced that it would respect the rights of women and girls as long as this was in accordance with Sharia, Islamic law. However, the law can be interpreted very differently.
The world is concerned about whether the Taliban will reintroduce their harsh regiment from the 1990s. There was evidence of this on Saturday when the Taliban killed four suspected kidnappers and hung their bodies in public places in the city of Herat.