Religion is used to enslave and subjugate people, as seen by the Taliban, who use Islam to instill fear and terror in society. The imposition, which is currently masquerading as the “Islamic veil” but is the Taliban’s shroud over society, exemplifies the deliberate use of religion. Given the lack of necessary services, legal frameworks, justice, and freedoms, the Taliban’s fear-instilling strategy is particularly effective. In the face of such flaws, fear becomes a potent deterrent to revolt, even if its effectiveness is temporary. This method has, to some extent, succeeded in making a part of some people hesitant to oppose the Taliban, resist the group, or push for rights and freedoms over the last two years.
Nevertheless, there exists a widespread yet subtle resistance within society against the policies and actions of the Taliban. This resistance takes various forms, from clothing styles to grooming practices (in men), the celebration of cultural events such as Nowruz and Yalda, the establishment of underground universities and schools, the pursuit of online education, adherence to health precautions, and more. Alongside the resistance from various groups of protesting women and military fronts against the Taliban, these behaviors indicate that the Taliban’s fear strategy is not entirely effective. The leadership of the Taliban, lacking the capability to provide services and uphold the rights of the people, is compelled to build its relationship with the public based on instilling fear.
The Taliban’s strategy of instilling fear operates through distinct stages, each effective within a defined timeframe before diminishing in impact. Although people gradually adapt to the imposed constraints for propagating fear, they also find ways to circumvent them. During this period, when the Taliban remain incapable of delivering services and continues to disregard the rights and freedoms of the people, they initiate another phase of their strategy. In the second stage, more stringent restrictions are imposed compared to the initial phase, and the strategy persists in this manner. When the Taliban perceive that fear alone is insufficient, they resort to more shameful actions aimed at humiliating society.
In the male-dominated Afghan society, if a man intends to demean another, he targets the honor of his relatives, primarily women. Everyday insults in the city and markets exemplify this approach. With this understanding, the Taliban now resort to abducting and torturing women, sometimes accompanied by sexual assault, to further humiliate society. This is done to instill more fear, hoping to suppress the calm yet continuous resistance within the community against Taliban oppression. The abduction and torture of women aim to coerce people into greater fear, prompting a subdued yet persistent opposition to the Taliban, and dissuading protesting women from overt resistance. This is an inhumane tactic employed for managing a society, as extremist and radical groups believe the end justifies the means, resorting to any form of action to control society through the propagation of fear.
Extortion from women abducted by the Taliban serves another purpose for the group. Women captured by the Taliban report being tortured in Taliban prisons. After providing proof of ownership documents, they are forced to pay money to Taliban fighters and their commanders to be transferred from these prisons to larger ones, commonly known as Afghanistan.
Following the Taliban’s initiation of kidnapping young girls and women, cities have become emptier than before, and businesses are on the verge of collapse. Women are no longer seen in the daily life of urban areas, forced to spend their days and nights within the confines of their homes, fearing abduction and disrespect by the Taliban’s morality police. Public spaces have become entirely male-dominated, a situation extending even to rural areas. Rural women, traditionally engaged in farming and providing support in agricultural and landowning activities to male family members, can no longer freely move around their lands. Consequently, with the implementation of this stage in the Taliban’s strategy, the economy will further deteriorate, and, more importantly, millions of women will be subjected to inhumane treatment within the confines of their homes. The constant fear of abduction by the Taliban has also hindered the pursuit of education for young girls. One mother wrote that her daughter, “who is no more than ten or twelve years old, used to learn English for an hour daily. Still, she now calls her daughter more than ten times a day to ensure she has not fallen into the hands of the Taliban”.
This stage of the Taliban’s strategy inflicts deeper wounds on society—wounds that may never heal. It appears that the Taliban, gradually and consistently implementing their fear strategy and introducing new restrictions after the effectiveness of the previous ones diminishes, have reached a point where they believe there is no room for further limitations. Now, they aim to desecrate the sanctity of families and harass women. This stage of the strategy has entrenched a level of fear in society that is challenging to endure or overcome easily. It seems the Taliban is approaching the final stages of their fear strategy against women. No longer content with merely instilling fear, they are now resorting to humiliating society, branding it as an “Islamic veil,” even though Afghan women wore veils before the Taliban’s rule. The selection of specific points in cities serves both to humiliate the people in those areas and to achieve the goals of their strategy.
If the Taliban truly cared about Islam and religion, they wouldn’t have violated Islamic teachings for so many years—killing people, destroying public facilities, damaging the economy and culture, engaging in sexual assault, momentarily setting aside bias and discrimination, avoiding corruption, selling passports to the poor people of Afghanistan for thousands of dollars, not seizing the bread of the impoverished working class, refraining from looting humanitarian aid, and more.
