One of many Taliban’s foremost targets since seizing energy in August 2021 has been to remodel Afghanistan’s schooling system.
Since October, that job has fallen to Nida Mohammad Nadim, a hard-line cleric who was appointed because the minister for greater schooling.
A former governor and navy commander, Nadim has vowed to root out all types of the fashionable secular schooling that thrived in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban’s first regime. He has additionally voiced his opposition to schooling for women and girls, calling it un-Islamic and in opposition to Afghan values.
His feedback have sparked controversies and fueled hypothesis that the Taliban is planning to additional limit feminine schooling.
The militants have already banned ladies from attending highschool and imposed gender segregation and a brand new gown code at universities. They’ve additionally banned ladies from making use of for a lot of college programs.
The Taliban has additionally vowed to overtake the nationwide curriculum and unveiled plans to construct an enormous community of madrasahs, or non secular seminaries, throughout the nation’s 34 provinces.
‘Debauchery And Obscenity’
Since his appointment, Nadim has scrapped the entire guidelines and bylaws of the ministry tasked with regulating and overseeing public universities in Afghanistan. He has additionally appointed Taliban fighters as officers and academics at universities, regardless of their lack of {qualifications}.
In a speech on December 4 within the western metropolis of Herat, Nadim mentioned that it will be “disrespectful” for members of the Taliban to take exams to find out their educational {qualifications}. He insisted {that a} Taliban fighter’s credentials had been based mostly on the “variety of bombs” he had detonated.
Final month, Nadim additionally blasted Amanullah Khan, Afghanistan’s former reformist king who’s broadly thought to be a nationwide hero for regaining the nation’s independence from Britain within the early twentieth century and his efforts to modernize Afghanistan.
Nadim accused the monarch of “bringing a recipe for debauchery and obscenity from international lands” by selling feminine schooling within the Twenties. The Taliban official claimed that “schooling for girls clashed with Islam and Afghan values.”
‘A Dangerous Omen’
Observers mentioned that Nadim’s appointment and rise throughout the Taliban counsel that the militant group is planning to impose a blanket ban on feminine schooling like throughout its first stint in energy from 1996 to 2001.
“His appointment to the upper schooling ministry is a foul omen,” mentioned a Kabul-based analyst who spoke to RFE/RL on situation of anonymity for worry of retribution.
Nadim was appointed by the Taliban’s supreme chief, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has the ultimate say beneath the clerically led system. Observers say that Akhundzada is steering the Taliban in an much more hard-line path.
The Kabul-based analyst mentioned Nadim is a member of a council of Taliban clerics who’ve suggested Akhundzada for the reason that group seized energy final yr.
Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator who has tracked the Taliban since its emergence within the Nineteen Nineties, mentioned Nadim has endeared himself to Akhundzada by implementing his orders and imaginative and prescient.
“He acts like an excellent soldier and obeys orders,” Yousafzai mentioned. “He simply needs to please the hard-line Taliban leaders pushing for a whole ban on ladies’s schooling.”
In a dramatic, last-minute resolution, the Taliban backtracked on its pledge to reopen excessive colleges for women in Afghanistan in March, highlighting the divisions throughout the group. Observers mentioned Akhundzada possible made the U-turn to appease Taliban ultraconservatives who’re vehemently in opposition to any type of feminine schooling.
‘Worry Of Their Leaders’
Nadim, who’s believed to be in his 40s, established a madrasah within the southern province of Kandahar after the U.S.-led invasion. He later joined the Taliban and have become a member of the group’s navy fee in Kandahar.
Nadim earned the title Sheikh al-Hadith, a distinction reserved for probably the most eminent students of the Prophet Muhammad’s sayings.
Observers have mentioned that Nadim’s non secular credentials have endeared him to Akhundzada, who has the identical title and is revered among the many Taliban as a scholar and jurist.
After the Taliban takeover, Nadim was appointed because the governor for the jap province of Nangarhar. Following a reshuffle in February, he gained the coveted governorship of Kabul Province, which incorporates the capital.
A supply with data of the Taliban’s inner politics advised RFE/RL that Nadim has aligned himself with highly effective ultraconservative clerics near Akhundzada. They embrace Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the Taliban’s chief justice, Mohammad Khalid Haqqani, the pinnacle of the Ministry for the Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice, and Schooling Minister Habibullah Agha.
The supply mentioned Nadim’s predecessor, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, had enraged ultraconservatives by permitting ladies to attend college.
The supply mentioned Nadim’s opposition to feminine schooling has angered some Taliban pragmatists who worry that the group’s restrictions on women and girls will stop them from gaining worldwide recognition and help.
“However they’re unable to open their mouths for worry of their leaders,” the supply mentioned.
