Taliban’s totalitarian control begets ubiquitous resistance.

A sign of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which replaced the Ministry for Women’s Affairs, is seen at an entrance gate of a government building in Kabul. (AFP)

The Taliban has taken Afghanistan, and armed resistance against it is improbable. They are the largest armed force in the country. The Taliban takeover is costly to the women and members of ethnic groups such as the Hazaras, who lose all of their rights and freedom under the Sunni theocracy. The Taliban has limited women’s access to education and work. In the first draft of what is going to be the Taliban’s constitution, there is no mention of the status of Hazara-Shiites, a significant portion of the population in the country.

However, Taliban oppression goes beyond ethnic and gender divisions; it intrudes to the very core of personal freedom and personal privacy. The Taliban is an ethnoreligious totalizing force combining Pashtun tribal values and extremist interpretation of Islamic texts and laws, dominating every aspect of its subjects (rayeat). The group has replaced the ministry of women with the Ministry of Virtue & Prevention of Vices. This ministry is tasked with keeping the people in line with what it sees as virtues for Muslim society and preventing the rayeats from committing vices. Taliban’s range of punishable offenses, hence vices, extends far beyond criminal actions to those not illegal actions under a non-religious or secular state. Thieves, robbers, and pickpockets are publicly beaten, or their hands are chopped off to make…