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Faizel Patel – 18/08/2021

Renowned Kabul based journalist Ali Latifi says life in Afghanistan has returned to normal following the takeover of the country by the Taliban

Latifi and Law professor Haroun Rahimi from the American University in Afghanistan were speaking to Radio Islam following the Taliban’s  first official press conference on Tuesday in Kabul since retaking power.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.

Latifi says life has returned to normal after the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

“It’s slowly starting to look like normal, but more people still need to feel a sense of confidence and assurance especially women and girls that they can go back out and return to normal life as much as possible.”

Latifi says despite images of chaos and hysteria being beamed all across the world, the sentiment on the ground is that people are just being cautious.

“Obviously there are going to be some people that will never accept the Talib and Talibs, but generally people are taking everything being said and done at face value. They’re hoping that it doesn’t go back to the way it was in the 90’s, but it’s only been three days and every single day the Taliban has to continue to prove to the country that they will respects everyone’s way of life.”

Rahimi says it was important that the Taliban’s vision for Afghanistan after taking over was outlined by Mujahid because he has established the authority to speak on behalf of the movement

“In terms of the credibility of that message, I absolutely agree with Ali that it hasn’t reached the bar for many, many, many Afghans and that’s why you see this rush to the door. In terms of the content of the speech, there were absolutely many topics that he was elusive about and I would like to point out that so far the Taliban have been able to more or less maintain at times positions that are in tension with each other.”

Rahimi says the Taliban have to calm Afghans after taking over power.

“One way they can do it is by giving details as to what it means for example how they would understand the rules of Islam when it comes to those topics. The people would need details because otherwise they would be just going to those points of reference which are not encouraging to many Afghans.”

Latifi and Rahimi concur that in the past twenty-years under a Western-backed government, Afghans had very divergent experiences and that the biggest challenge for the Taliban is to reconcile a country under new rules in a way that everyone feels included and have a place in the country.

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Listen to the interview with Ali Latifi and Haroun Rahimi