A senior Taliban terrorist reportedly fled Afghanistan this week after a recent speech in which he defended women’s rights and insisted that Islamic sharia law does not mandate the abuse of women.
Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a deputy foreign minister within the Taliban’s state infrastructure, fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after Taliban “supreme leader” Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered his arrest, the U.K. Guardian reported on Monday.
The Afghan newspaper Etilaat Roz similarly reported his exile on Monday and went further to suggest that Stanikzai delivered his controversial remarks on the orders of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s “minister of the interior” and leader of the terrorist Haqqani Network. Sirajuddin Haqqani traveled to the UAE in late January and has yet to return, raising more questions about the growing rift inside the Taliban regime.
The Haqqani Network for years served as a bridge between the Taliban and al-Qaeda and appeared to have been largely woven into the fabric of the Taliban’s regime following the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan in 2021.
The Taliban terrorist organization’s government, under “supreme leader” Akhundzada, is one of the world’s most repressive places for women. While promising to build an “inclusive” government in 2021, the Taliban almost immediately banned women from leaving their homes outside of emergency situations and made it impossible for women to have jobs. Less than a year after conquering Kabul, the Taliban forbade girls above primary school age from returning to school. The move has caused the Taliban significant international strife as the United Nations vehemently condemned the measure, while many potential investors in the future of Afghanistan have stayed away from its markets.
Taliban leaders justified the repression by claiming that it is a part of practicing Islam correctly. Molvi Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesman for the Taliban “Ministry of Vice and Virtue,” claimed in August 2023 that “it is very bad to see women in some areas, and our scholars also agree that women’s faces should be hidden.”
“It’s not that her face will be harmed or damaged. A woman has her own value and that value decreases by men looking at her. Allah gives respect to females in hijab and there is value in this,” Akif insisted.
This is the context in which Stanikzai delivered his shocking remarks at a madrasa graduation ceremony on January 19.
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“Today, out of a population of 40 million, we are committing injustice against 20 million people,” he said, referring to the nation’s women and girls.
“We have deprived them of all their rights; they have no inheritance rights, no share in determining their husband’s rights, they are sacrificed in forced marriages,” he listed, “they are not allowed to study, they cannot go to mosques, the doors of universities and schools are closed to them, and they are not allowed in religious schools either.”
Stanikzai most offended the Taliban by asserting that the jihadists were “not in accordance with sharia” with their treatment of women.
“There is no justification for closing the doors of education to girls,” he concluded. “We request the leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education. There is no acceptable excuse for this, and there will never be.”
The Guardian reported on Monday that Akhundzada responded to the speech by banning Stanikzai from leaving the country and ordering his arrest, but Stanikzai made his way to exile.
Etilaat Roz, citing unnamed Taliban sources, claimed that Sirajuddin Haqqani helped Stanikzai flee, and suggested Haqqani ordered Stanikzai to give the women’s rights speech in the first place. The sources claimed Anas Haqqani, Sirajuddin’s brother, “solved his visa problem” and got Stanikzai to Dubai.
The newspaper concluded that the exchange suggests the Haqqanis are becoming more influential in Afghan politics, as they hold sway with regional actors that has eluded “supreme leader” Akhundzada, who is notoriously reclusive and does not directly engage in diplomacy.
Etilaat Roz further added that the Haqqani Network is helping to distribute an audio tape of Stanikzai condemning the current Taliban leadership.
“In Islam and Sharia law, worshiping people has no place. Anyone who worships persons is in error in terms of Sharia,” the voice on the audio reportedly says, referring to the total control that Akhundzada is demanding of Afghanistan.
Stanikzai, while being a Taliban member, had a record of being slightly less radical in his Islamism. As one of a team of negotiators working with the United States, in 2019, Stanikzai suggested that the Taliban would welcome “U.S. engineers, doctors, and others” to help rebuild the country when the 20-year Afghan War ended.
Stanikzai was a fixture in Taliban reports on senior diplomatic engagements prior to his women’s rights speech. The Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency repeatedly mentioned Stanikzai meeting with foreign dignitaries throughout January. The last mention of him in the English-language edition of Bakhtar occurred on January 20, when Stanikzai reportedly greeted Chinese officials celebrating the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties between their two countries.
Reports of a rift between the Haqqanis and the core Taliban leadership have floated around for years. In early 2023, for example, Sirajuddin Haqqani delivered public remarks that appeared to directly challenge Akhundzada’s leadership.
“Monopolizing power and hurting the reputation of the entire system are not to our benefit,” Haqqani said at a school event, adding that Taliban leaders must practice “engagement with the people,” a barb at the reclusive Akhundzada.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s top spokesman, appeared to scold Haqqani after the speech.
“If someone criticizes the emir, minister, or any other official, it is better – and Islamic ethics also say – that he should express his criticism directly and secretly to him,” Mujahid told reporters.
Taliban Deputy Minister of the Interior Mohammad Nabi Omari, presumably Sirajuddin Haqqani’s second-in-command, made some bizarre remarks this week insisting that there is no political struggle within the Taliban regime.
“Do not be influenced by the media claims that suggest there are divisions such as the Kandahar network, the Haqqani network, or the Ghazni network,” Omari said. “May God never show us such a situation in life or after death.”
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