It is no word play because the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom proposed that Afghanistan be declared a Country of Particular Concern. It is spelling spud spud the Taliban have developed a regime where religion serves as a tool of oppression and not mercy. The language employed by the commission of systematic, continuing and outrageous fits the definition because it is not a chance occurrence. It is identified, written and enforced through terror and is done publicly in the presence of all people to keep everybody on alert.

The Taliban present their initiative as a pious one, but their governance seems less of religiousness and more of submission in the name of holy words. They take up Sharia as a fortification against criticism, when what they practice is close, strict-penal, interpretation which renders moral life state-police. Islam has never lacked controversy in moral tradition, restrictions of ethics and power. A totalitarian regime where opposition is stamped, and non-conformity is repressed, has nothing to defend religion, it is replacing it with conformity.

One of the clearest signs is the new penal code of the Taliban and its requirements of one of the schools of thought. Even the legal caste system within Islam is offered by the authorities itself in favour of the Hanafi school and the deprivation of Muslim status to the people who discard it. Far otherwise it is not a political sorting machine, it is a defence of belief. It not only admits invectives, but it threatens obedience and makes individual conscience a crime.

The sadism is also in the ways. They are not only penalized, corporal punishment and execution in a crowd do not involve due process. They are theatre. Fear is the order of the day created by floggings, stoning, confessions obtained under duress, and being humiliated in front of others. Justice has become justice when it has become an event.

This initiative is initially loaded on the shoulders of religious minorities, but not all are left alone. Shia groupings, Ahmadiyya, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are limited in terms of their worship, association and overall life. Even the routine activities can be rendered to appear as contrary to the law, where they are not in the accepted religious text of the Taliban. The breakage to reform, or at least to masquerade oneself is part of the scheme. In the meantime, deviated Muslims, or those who do otherwise, are threatened and put to punishment. It is not restricted to minorities only. Pluralism is what is being attacked.

This repression particularly affects females and girls and the justifications which are given by the Taliban to justify such acts is the religious duty. The deliberate eroding of women in the scene through the decree that does not allow women to talk in the open, restrict their movements and having a male guardian about them are ways of attempting to disregard women in the political arena. Of particular interest is the ban on the education of girls who are past the age of twelve years. Islam is not challenged by knowledge. It is a core obligation. The Taliban restrictive actions are not a regressive move to religion. They are a concession that an educated woman population will not be in favour of their domination.

The reorganization of madrassas also adds to the intensity of the crisis. Those institutions which can be learning institutions are subordinated to a state agenda. Children are taught to obey as it is good and to deviate as it is bad in a worldview. Along with this comes the expansion of speech, clothing and social contact policing by the Taliban morality law. A society of informers and silent rooms is created by taking the authoritative position in the actions of the people in a state.

Such a label of Country of Particular Concern of Afghanistan is not a form of punishment as it is a Muslim country. It is a response of a government that employs religion to defend gawking inhumanity, bigotry, and denial of basic freedoms. The label is significant because it will send a message to the world that the religious freedom in Afghanistan is being systematically violated. It also creates a platform on which a structured response is done therefore no side-treatment of the problem by the allies.

Nonetheless, there will not be a single designation that will work until Afghans unless it is accompanied by smart pressure and real help. It means that certain punishment on the agents of abuse, protracted protection of the independent records and protective measures in case of threat to the lives of vulnerable population groups, including minorities, female heads, journalists, and human rights activists, are provided. It also connotes the participation of plausible Muslim scholars and voices of Muslim community that will be able to fight Taliban assertions based on religion. Humanitarian assistance must be able to keep people going, but it must be structured in a manner that would not become an enabler of repression.

The central point is simple. It does not deal with the Taliban foisting faith but submission. Their reign is even being discussed like a religious revival to be used as an excuse to what is happening: dictatorial power together with selective scripture, with which to shatter human dignity that religion should protect. The Afghans must have a future in which religion is not driven by terror, and religion is not a state machismo, but an individual one. When the world stops remembering the message, the message that cruelty works is passed to all extremist projects. The pressure should be regular, and it should relate to certain milestones: open the school of girls, no punishments in the form of publics, and allow the minorities to pray publicly and without any fear. Otherwise, it is involvement, not complicity.

© Eurasia Review