Author: Khalid Hasan
Publication: Dawn, Karachi
Date: March 19, 2001
The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas
may finally persuade those that recognize the Taliban regime to question
its distorted interpretation of the Sharia. Until now, the Islamic world
with the exception of Iran (though for its own reasons) had said nothing
critical of the Taliban's extremism, or anything about their denial to
women of their basic right to education, free movement and work.
Muslim governments chose instead
to look away from the catastrophe that is Afghanistan under the Taliban.
It has taken the savage destruction of two Buddhist landmarks to make the
Islamic world come out, partially though, of its somnambulism. Meanwhile,
the Lord Buddha, no doubt, has looked down on the destruction of his image
with benign understanding, an enigmatic smile playing on his lips.
Ahmed Rashid in his superb book
on the rise of the Taliban writes that after they captured the city of
Mazar, they declared the tomb of its most beloved saint, Rabia Balkhi,
out of bounds. Her story is both romantic and tragic. Born in the Middle
Ages, she was the first woman of her time to compose love poetry in Persian.
She died after her brother slashed her wrists as punishment for her love
for a slave. As she lay dying, she wrote out her last poem in her own blood.
For centuries, young Uzbek girls and boys had treated her tomb with the
devotion appropriate to a saint, going there to pray for the fulfilment
of their own romantic dreams. The Taliban did not raze her tomb to the
ground. Perhaps one should be grateful for small mercies.
When the Taliban banned every form
of entertainment, the Muslim states remained indifferent since it did not
directly affect them. One recalls a time before the invention of the VCR
when Pakistanis in large numbers used to make short trips to Kabul to watch
Indian movies. That could have happened in another lifetime. In the ravaged
city of Kabul, as it is today, there are no movies, no music, no television.
All this and more has been declared against Islam as understood by the
Taliban. One of the governing mullahs told Ahmed Rashid while describing
to him the most suitable punishment for being gay, "Some say we should
take these sinners to a high roof and throw them down, while others say
we should dig a hole beside a wall, bury them, then push the wall down
on them." This novel form of justice was once demonstrated in the presence
of Mullah Muhammad Umar himself.
The same Islamic "scholar", when
asked what the Afghans should do for entertainment now that the cinemas
were closed, the TV was off the air and Radio Shariat was not exactly playing
music, replied, "Of course, we realize that people need some entertainment
but they can go to the parks and see the flowers, and from this they will
learn about Islam." It is another matter that in the war-destroyed Afghanistan
of the Mullahs there are no parks to go to, though it is reassuring to
know that the Taliban do not consider flowers to be outside the pale of
Islam.
It will be sobering to remind ourselves
of some of the edicts and decrees relating to women and culture issued
by the Taliban since 1994.
Women are not to step outside their
place of residence and if they do, they should not look like those of their
erstwhile sisters who used to parade themselves before men, wearing fashionable
clothes and cosmetics "before the coming of Islam." One should note that
the Taliban do not think Afghanistan was a Muslim country before they took
power.
Women should not create an opportunity
to attract the attention of men who "will not look at them with a good
eye." A woman is responsible for coordinating her family. It is the husband,
brother or father who has to provide that family with its necessary requirements.
Women who have to step out for "education (which has been banned anyway),
social needs and social services", should be covered from head to toe.
If they are found wearing "fashionable, ornamental, tight and charming
clothes to show themselves" they would be "cursed by the Islamic Sharia
and should never expect to go to heaven." Having taken over God's own functions
and decided what will happen to these female fiends in the hereafter, the
Taliban decree does not neglect the here and now by promising that such
women would be "threatened, investigated and severely punished" and for
good measure, their menfolk would be punished too.
Female patients are to go to female
doctors, but if they have to be seen by a male doctor they must be accompanied
by a close relative and during examination both the patient and the doctor
should wear the "Islamic hijab." Male doctors are not to touch or see "other
parts of female patients except for the affected part", nor are they allowed
to enter the rooms or wards of female patients unless they have been specifically
requested to do so. Male and female doctors are not to sit together or
even converse. "If there is need for discussion, it should be done with
hijab." Hospital staff must pray in mosques on time, while the religious
police can go wherever they want, anytime they want and "nobody can prevent
them."
No driver is allowed to pick up
a woman who is wearing an Iranian-style burqa. If he does, he will be sent
to jail and her husband will be punished as well. Women who are seen wearing
"stimulating and attractive" clothes are not to be picked up from the street
by drivers.
As for music, it cannot be played
in shops, hotels, vehicles and public transport. If a music cassette is
found in a shop, the shopkeeper will be jailed and his shop locked up.
It may only be opened if five people are prepared to guarantee the offender's
future good conduct. Anyone found with a music cassette in his vehicle
will lose both the cassette and the vehicle. He will also be imprisoned.
One must wonder if Oliver Cromwell has returned to earth in another form.
The Taliban have a thing about hair.
"To prevent beard shaving and its cutting", those found shaven or with
a trimmed beard are to be arrested and jailed "until their beard gets bushy".
Long-haired people are to be arrested and taken to the Religious Police
where their hair will be shaved. The parting kick is that the "criminal
has to pay the barber." The Taliban have no love for pigeons either. A
December 1996 edict said: "After ten days, this should be monitored and
the pigeons and any other playing birds should be killed." Card playing
is illegal as is kite-flying. All kite shops in Afghanistan have been closed
down. The Afghans used to fly kites during Naoroz, the Afghan new year.
No more. The skies over Afghanistan are free of colour.
The December 1996 ruling on "idolatry"
in Taliban English says, "In vehicles, shops, hotels, room and any other
place, pictures/portraits should be abolished. The monitors should tear
up all pictures in the above places." Is it not ironic that a government,
the bulk of whose income is derived from the drugs trade, should jail and
punish both addicts and suppliers?
Interest is officially banned. Kabul
used to have a bazaar entirely devoted to the money trade. It was perhaps
the only place in the world where the Pakistani rupee could be exchanged
at a good rate. No longer. Afghan women used to go to the river to wash
clothes. Not possible now. Any woman found washing clothes on the riverbank
is to be picked up, taken home and her husband "severely punished." Singing
and dancing are not allowed at weddings. Tailors may no longer measure
women. In case you are a sorcerer. Afghanistan is not where you should
go. Sorcery is forbidden. All books of sorcery have been ordered burnt
and sorcerers kept in jail till they repent.
These are some of the things the
Taliban have done to the living. The Bamiyan Buddhas were only stone.
