Afghanistan: Taliban changed civil laws to Islamic laws, 'purification' campaign started across the country

Many changes have been made after the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Susannah George writes in the Washington Post that Afghanistan's new rulers, the Taliban, have launched a nationwide "purification" campaign to replace civil law with Islamic law. He said that when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the group began a "purification" campaign aimed at stripping away civil laws and institutions to create a fully Islamic society in the country.

George said that after a year and a half, the Taliban has overhauled the country's justice system by scrapping the constitution and replacing the legal code with regulations based on a stricter interpretation of Islamic law. The Taliban have filled the jails. It has also denied men and women basic civil rights and destroyed the social safety net designed to protect the most vulnerable Afghans.

The Washington Post reported that the Taliban is also seeking to replace the media. The media is being used to promote his vision for the country and to restrict content deemed un-Islamic, including music and the presence of women in institutions.

Critics say the effort has turned a rights-based social order into a process of fear and intimidation, reports The Washington Post. However, Taliban officials and some Afghans have credited the campaign with improving security and rooting out corruption. Mawlawi Ahmed Shah Fedayi, a prominent imam with close Taliban ties, said outside his mosque in Afghanistan's second city of Kandahar: "We have returned humanity to the country."

Taliban judges said they burned books containing the previous government's laws when they moved to abandoned courts after the 2021 takeover. With the formalization of these legal and policy changes by the Taliban in recent months, George said, the purification drive has gone further. In addition, the Taliban's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, has become more vocal about subjecting alleged criminals to Islamic law. For example, punishment for a crime has now been transformed into flogging in public.

Taliban deputy spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousef Ahmadi told the Washington Post that Taliban rulers have been forced to create an Islamic Sharia system and try to reform Afghan society. He imposed the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic law, saying it was a blessing for the government and the people. Also, it pleases Allah.

So far, George said, the Taliban's purification campaign has not reappeared the brutality of the group's earlier tenure, such as the widespread stoning of women for alleged adultery. But recent developments suggest the Taliban may be moving in that direction. Significantly, after taking power, the Taliban severely restricted women's access to education and barred women from working for humanitarian organizations.

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