Chief of Taliban's political office arrives in Kandahar province

Gulf Today Report

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the co-founders of the Taliban, now heads its political office and is part of the negotiating team that the group has in Doha, where talks on a ceasefire had been underway.

Baradar, reported to have been one of Mullah Omar's most trusted commanders, was captured in 2010 by security forces in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi and released in 2018.

A senior Taliban official called on all Afghans to continue their normal economic activities, and stressed on Tuesday that wearing the burqa will not be mandatory as it was when the movement ruled Afghanistan more than two decades ago, but that women must wear a headscarf, and another official pledged to respect press freedom.

As life began to return to some normality in Kabul, on Tuesday a few women were on the streets of the capital as men traded their Western clothes for traditional Afghan dress.

"The burqa is not the only hijab that (can) be adhered to, there are different types of hijab," said Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the group's political office in Doha. Shaheen did not specify the type of hijab that women would have to adhere to.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban imposed an extremist regime, forbidding women from leaving homes and banning entertainment.

Many countries and human rights groups raised the alarm about the fate of women's education in Afghanistan, after it became in the hands of militants on Sunday.

But Shaheen also sought to reassure Afghans about this issue. He explained that women “can learn from primary to higher education, and that means university. We announced this policy in international conferences and the Moscow conference.” He added that thousands of schools in the areas captured by the Taliban are still operating.

Shaheen said that the United States should complete the process of withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan by next September 11, stressing the movement's commitment not to attack the withdrawing forces.

"They announced that they would withdraw their forces before 9/11," he added. Then they must withdraw all their forces, and we are committed not to attack them. We did not attack them.”