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On May 7, 2022, the Taliban announced that the burqa would once again be mandatory attire for all women in public in Afghanistan. In a video posted to YouTube on June 3 criticizing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban jihadi organization that rules the country) for forcing women to wear the burqa, former jihadi commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has said that covering a woman's face and hands is not included in the Islamic order on veiling for women.
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Delivering a Friday sermon at a mosque in Kabul, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) who returned to Afghanistan after striking a deal with the U.S.-backed Afghan government in 2016, said that imposing such a forced decision on women, who who make up half the Afghan population, has no justification in Islam.
"Brothers and sisters, we urge the officials of the Islamic Emirate not to impose a specific kind of dress on Afghans, especially on girls and women, which has neither been ordered by the Koran nor Prophet of Allah [Muhammad]," the former jihadi commander told the worshippers at the weekly Friday prayers. He added: "All the past Ulema [religious leaders] and scholars are unanimous [in their ruling] that [covering] women's face, hands, and feet are not included in seclusion [i.e., the veil as prescribed in Islamic shari'a]."
The Hizb-e-Islami leader, whose jihadi forces fought against American and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, also noted that jihad cannot be used for forcing belief on people: "The people choose the faith. Every order of the Koran... was implemented by the people willingly. Jihad is not for imposing faith on the people. We should not make this mistake. Jihad is against the tyrants to protect the innocent and for the freedom of innocents."
He said when a clothing or a situation is imposed on the people, the society soon gets rid of it when the people who have imposed it on them lose the power. "Allah says there is no force or impositions on people in the faith [i.e., Islam], that is, the faith gives freedom to the people and the freedom to choose between truth and falsehood."
Warning the Afghan Taliban, Hekmatyar further said: "A government can only survive and last when the nation stands by them and agrees to their decisions." He said that these suggestions were made to the Islamic Emirate because the success of the Islamic Emirate as is "our own success" and its failure is "our own failure" as well as the failure of all Islamists.
Dispelling the impression that he wanted a share of power in the Taliban government, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said: "We have no intention or demand to become a part of the government. We want the government to be united and have no differences. Coalition governments always fail and face differences."
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