BBC Exposes Taliban’s 5-Year Rule Over Women as Officials Defend Sharia Curbs

2 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 24

Five years after the Taliban returned to power, BBC reporting from Afghanistan shows officials enforcing a hardline Sharia-based order that keeps girls out of secondary school and women out of most work, universities and solo travel.
In Jawzjan, an 18-year-old woman sought a divorce over alleged abuse, but Governor Abdullah Sarhadi urged her to stay married and later called women “mindless,” underscoring how Taliban rule shapes even personal disputes.
Sarhadi, a former Guantanamo detainee, said he personally destroyed Bamiyan’s Buddha statues, while another senior figure, Habibullah Badr, acknowledged past responsibility for suicide operations but avoided questions about civilian deaths.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said women’s rights and free speech must be viewed “through the Sharia lens,” defending education and workplace bans as still under discussion or needed to prevent “immoralities.”
The access also captured muted dissent and wider strain: a charity official publicly urged girls’ schools to reopen before being cut off, while poverty remains severe, with the UN saying three in four Afghans cannot meet basic needs.