Lagatar24 Desk
Kabul, June 30: To support their strict interpretation of Islam, the Taliban invited only men to a gathering in the capital on Thursday that was attended by thousands of Afghan religious scholars and tribal leaders.
The ‘jirga’, a traditional assembly of powerful people who resolve disagreements by consensus, has received little official explanation, and the media is also not permitted to attend.
It occurs a week after a significant earthquake that killed over 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless in the country’s east.
Even before the earthquake, the Taliban were having trouble running a nation that had been mired in economic stagnation for years and was entirely dependent on foreign funding, which stopped up in August with the toppling of the Western-backed government.
Senior Taliban commanders were scheduled to meet with American officials later on Thursday in Qatar to discuss opening up some of Afghanistan’s reserves. Washington was looking for methods to make sure the money would benefit the populace rather than the Islamist group.
This week, a Taliban insider told AFP that during the three-day jirga, criticism of the government will be permitted and contentious topics like girls’ education, which has caused division within the movement, would be debated.
But since they would be represented by male relatives, women would not be permitted to attend, according to Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi, who told state broadcaster RTA on Wednesday.
