Summary
Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, reportedly fled to the UAE after criticizing the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education.
In a January 20 speech, he condemned the restrictions as unjust and contrary to Islamic teachings.
Following his remarks, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada allegedly ordered his arrest and imposed a travel ban. Stanikzai claims he left for health reasons.
This comes amid increasing international pressure, with the ICC seeking arrest warrants against Taliban leaders for crimes against humanity over their treatment of women.
Forced to flee for having a divergent opinion, fucking dumb even by Taliban standards
Edit: thinking about this some more, I feel like this situation perfectly encapsulates why authoritarianism is so self destructive. You end up with a rigid set of ideas that are completely inflexible. Reality must bend to the ideas of the party rather than the other way around, until the party’s line becomes so incongruent with reality that things come tumbling down in an instant. It’s a shame the Taliban seem ok with Afghanistan remaining impoverished so long as they can continue treating women like shit.
I mean, is it? I think you assume too much about the value they place on rigorous intellectual debate.
Their thing is that the established, local version of Islam is perfect, handed down from god and miraculously transmitted flawlessly by whatever mullah is in charge today. Having a different take, besides presenting a very personal health and safety threat to the guys in charge, is non-figuratively heresy.
As for the edit, it’s worth noting that autocracies can become very flexible, in their own way, as soon as they stop bothering with the ideology. North Korea has gone on paper from communist to a mystical bloodline monarchy in what, a few decades? Of course, with the ideology goes any incentive to have a strong economy or technological base, let alone human rights, because it’s a bad tradeoff for less control of the peasants…
There is no Islamic rule preventing girls education, which is what the foreign minister was arguing for. It is the Pashtun tribal traditions hardliners which are banning it.