Taliban issue new decree, strip Uzbek of its official language status

A month after seizing control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have stripped Uzbek from its official language status. According to RIA Novosti, the newly-minted Taliban administration recently issued a new interim law ‘Fundamentals’, which indicates the official religion of the country as Afghanistan Sunni Islam or Hanafi madhab as well as the offcial language as Pashto and Dari. It is worth mentioning that the Uzbek language is spoken by the considerable population in the country's north and also by the minority Shittte community. 

Afghanistan houses a complex mosaic of linguistic groups. While Pashto and Persian (Dari) have been made the official languages, there is still a wide range of languages spoken in the country including Western Dardic, Turkik, Balochi, and a number of Indic and Pamiri languages. 

Other laws implemented by the Taliban

In addendum, the new decree also touts the setting of a council of Islamic lawyers and a supreme council which will include politicians, scientists and clergy from each province. The council will be headed by the country’s president, it adds. In addendum, ‘Fundamentals’ also asserts the creation of an election commission to ensure “transparent elections.” 

This comes days after the Taliban government closed the Ministry of Women Affairs in Afghanistan, replacing it with a ministry for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice". The Taliban have announced that female middle and high school students, for the time being, should not return to school. However, boys in the same classes have started attending their classes this weekend. Female university students have been allowed to study but in a gender-segregated class. Moreover, the women attending classes at the university have to follow the Islamic dress code. 

Several women protested outside the former Ministry of Women Affairs, demanding the participation of women in public life. The women holding the signboard staged a protest for about 10 minutes after which they had a verbal confrontation with a man. "A society in which women are not active is a dead society," one sign read. After the Taliban re-conquered Afghanistan, women in large numbers protested across Afghanistan, seeking inclusion in the new administration and no curbs on women's freedoms.

Image: AP