The Taliban are on the verge of holding their Ulema Council. In recent months, Taliban lobbyists in the country and abroad have been marketing the group for this reason. It now appears that the council that the Taliban has been talking about is nothing more than a small meeting between members of the group.
Sometimes a small group, when they come to the position of decision-making, makes historic decisions without resorting to the direct votes of the people. Many small but progressive and futuristic meetings and councils have been held. On the other hand, it has happened many times that thousands of self proclaimed individuals from around the country on the instructions bases of jirga facilitators have come together for making important national decisions that have not solved any problem, but have legitimized decisions against the will of people. Even the elections and the ballot box have in some cases become a source of suffering and misery for the people.
The Jirga or the Council of Taliban Ulema that is on the way now, even if it has representatives from all over Afghanistan and from different segment of the society, will not untie the knot of the nation. Because Afghanistan’s biggest knot is Taliban group itself. It is an office in which governmental and political decisions are vulgar, and no one talks about the development of freedoms, employment and job opportunities, the increase of human resources, respect for the basic rights of the people and hundreds of other vital issues, but primitive and vulgar issues such as beard size, the prohibition or abomination of laughter and the like are called the main issues of politics and governance. Opening up a girls’ school and arguing that women can walk a few meters away from the gates of a husband or father’s house without a male guardian is the Taliban’s “revolutionary” argument. There is no hope for such a gathering to be held by such a force and outdated tribal oriented ideology.
Some have expressed hope that schools may be allowed to reopen in the Taliban’s Ulema Assembly. Holding an assembly to open and close a school is a crime. Why should a group have the right to decide whether to open or close our children’s school? In matters such as the right of access to education, no jirga or referendum should be held. Education is the primary need of human society and there is no verse in holy book that has prohibited education for girls. If it is assumed in the Taliban council that girls have the right to go to school for a certain period of time and under certain conditions, it will not solve any issue but it will be a step toward the normalization of vulgar rule.
Jirga, referendums and elections are not a prayer for anyone who mentions it to heal. The composition of the participants determines the subject of the jirga or referendum, its management and leadership. If the Taliban is supposed to hold a jirga one day to eliminate a religious minority, or to hold a referendum on the forced displacement and relocation of a population living in the country, or to hold elections to appoint an Amir, it has not done anything democratic. Because forced migration is the elimination of minorities and the appointment of an oppressive and undemocratic Amir. Taliban mullahs and commanders do not have the right to determine the fate of the people. Our people deserve a normal life and democratic government. We must not be deceived by the Taliban’s Jirga and symbolic gathering whose participants are brought together by either by force or by paying a sum of money. The Taliban will be the enemy of the people as long as they return power to the people and submit to legal and democratic mechanisms, and the result of enmity with the people is obvious. Comfort, peace and stability in the country are delayed, but the persistence of vulgarity also increases the likelihood of confrontation and popular uprising.
