O heart it may be that the door of the “schools”, they will open. This is a manipulated hemistich by Hafez which is actually as follows: O heart it may be that the door of the wine-houses, they will open. Then, He continues:
“O God they fate and destiny closed the door of the wine-houses. Approve not.
For, the door of deception and of hypocrisy, they will open”.
Hafez, the 8th AH century Persian poet, was, throughout his life, faced and involved with Muhtaseb (inspector), Mullah, Sheikh, and the hypocrites, who, according to him, when into their chamber they go, that work of another kind they make.
Now, in the 14th AH century, the bulk of Hafez’s civilization territory is in the same state as it was in his time, and it is not as if about 600 years have passed since that era. Even today, people in Afghanistan and Iran are fighting against the Muhtaseb and Gasht-e-Ershad (guidance patrol) and have not been able to free their lives from the interventions of mullahs and muhatsebs. The situation has even become much worse: Hafez was waiting for the reopening of wine-houses, and the Afghan people are waiting for the reopening of schools for half of the country’s population.
The Ministry of Higher Education under the Taliban’s rule has recently announced that university lessons, in cold regions, will be started on 06 March 2023. Only male students will be allowed to attend university classes, the announcement reads.
While the Afghan people and political and diplomatic authorities of the world and the United Nations are waiting for the reopening of schools in the following new academic year in Afghanistan, there is no sign of reopening girls’ schools yet.
During the Doha peace talks, the Taliban had clearly announced that after the US withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan, they will negotiate with the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to agree on forming a government acceptable to the majority of the Afghan people. They had also openly stated that all women and girls would be allowed to study both religious and secular sciences up to any level they want, respecting the traditions and culture of Afghanistan. But in practice, when the Taliban seized the power, they first shut down girls’ high schools, then they banned the girls from going to universities and elementary schools, and even private education centers.
In recent months, news and rumors have circulated in the media and on social media that some of the Taliban leaders are trying to reopen girls’ schools. Even some high-ranking figures and officials of the Taliban have openly talked about the necessity of education for everyone. But in practice, nothing happened. All the educational centers remained shut down to girls, with increased restrictions on women.
It has been a long since the “good Talian-bad Taliban” narrative has been constructed. The constructors and propagandists of this narrative claim that these two factions of the Taliban are fighting each other over women’s rights. However, now it is obvious that such a classification does not conform to the actuality of the Taliban. Or, at least, the good Taliban, who want to reform the extremist behavior of the Taliban, do not have enough power to confront the extremist faction.
Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban leader, is gaining more power day-to-day. His increased control over various levels of the Taliban will weaken the possibility of any internal reform of the Taliban.
After nearly two years of seizing power, the Taliban have not yet been able to change themselves from a mainly guerilla group to a governmental structure. Although they have an acting prime minister and a cabinet in Kabul, sometimes this cabinet holds no meeting for months. There is no formal decision-making system or a governmental hierarchy yet.
The Taliban leader’s emphasis on preserving the guerilla structure of the Taliban is thought-out, as he knows that if he accepts a governmental structure, it will be difficult for him to control the Taliban at different levels; If the cabinet is established as an institution with decision-making authority over daily affairs, it will be difficult to oppose its decisions.
Internal reforms and changes in the Taliban, especially in relation to women’s basic rights, could be possible when they had begun to change themselves from a guerrilla group to a governmental structure and created a more decentralized mechanism among themselves for the decision-making institutions.
In such a situation, instead of watching the show of so-called internal conflicts of the Taliban or having a phony hope for changing the Taliban’s way of thinking, we have to think to change the world’s passive position towards Afghanistan, as well as the society’s position towards the inhumane and irresponsible actions this terrorist group do against the fate of more than half of the country’s population.
