Freedom in the World 1998 - Afghanistan

1998 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 7.0
Civil Liberties: 7
Political Rights: 7

Overview

Two years after the Taliban captured Kabul and imposed the strict, centuries-old social code of isolated, mountain villages on more progressive urban areas, life in Afghanistan has returned to a pre-modern, Hobbesian form: nasty, short, and brutish. The Taliban's violent, arbitrary rule has imposed order through terror. Its dehumanization of women and girls has turned educated women into beggars; left widows, mothers, and daughters to die of illnesses that have been treatable for decades; and denied a generation of girls access to basic education.

Following a 19th century Anglo-Russian contest for domination, Britain recognized Afghanistan as an independent monarchy in 1921. King Zahir Shah ruled from 1933 until he was deposed in a 1973 coup. Since a Communist coup in 1978, Afghanistan has been in continuous civil conflict. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded to install a pro-Moscow Communist faction. More than 100,000 Soviet troops faced fierce resistance from U.S.-backed, ethnic-based mujahideen guerrillas before withdrawing in 1989.

After overthrowing the Communist government in 1992, the mujahideen, backed by neighboring countries and regional powers, battled for control of Kabul and, by 1994, had reduced the city to rubble. Today, the main ethnic divide is between the rural-based Pashtuns, who form a near majority and have ruled for most of the past 250 years, and the large Tajik minority.

The Taliban, a new, Pashtun-based militia organized around theology students, began its conquest of the country in mid-1994. In 1996, it ousted the nominal Kabul government led by Burhanuddin Rabbani and his Tajik-dominated Jamiat-i-Islami (Islamic Association). Later that year, Ahmad Shah Masood, the ethnic Tajik military commander of the Rabbani government, and Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum formed an anti-Taliban alliance.

In May 1997, Abdul Malik Pahlawan and other ethnic Uzbek commanders ousted Dostum and allowed the Taliban to control five key northern provinces under a power-sharing deal. The Taliban reneged, and northern troops quickly pushed back the Islamic militia. In November, Dostum's troops forced Pahwalan to flee to Iran.

In August and September 1998, the Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif and much of central Bamian province. While taking Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban massacred what is believed to be thousands of civilians, mainly ethnic Hazaras. The last major area remaining outside of the Taliban's control is the Panjshir Valley in the north, where Masood's Tajik troops continue to launch attacks against Taliban positions north of Kabul.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

There are no democratic processes in Afghanistan. The Taliban, whose regime is recognized by only three foreign governments, control 90 percent of the country. The remainder is held by three main militias comprising the self-styled United Front: Tajik-based forces under Masood, Uzbek-based forces under Dostum's National Islamic Front faction, and a small Hazara Shiite-based Hezb-i-Wahadat militia led by Karim Khalili in central Afghanistan.

While eliminating banditry, the Taliban have largely neglected most government functions and have relied on the United Nations and foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to provide basic services. An inner circle of clerics issues strictly enforced decrees to regulate social affairs. Appointed local shura (councils) also rule by decree.

The judiciary consists of tribunals in which clerics with little legal training issue rulings based on Pashtun customs and the Taliban's interpretation of Shari'a law. Proceedings are brief, and defendants lack the right to legal counsel, due process, and appeal. Sentences are often carried out in public stadiums. Families of murder victims have the option of executing court-imposed death sentences or granting clemency. Victims' relatives have killed murderers on several occasions, and authorities have bulldozed alleged sodomists under walls, stoned adulterers to death, and amputated the hands of thieves.

Religious police have publicly beaten and otherwise humiliated hundreds of women for violating Taliban dress codes, which include wearing the burqa, a one-piece garment that covers the entire body. Soldiers, militiamen, and renegades abduct and rape scores of women each year.

The Taliban arbitrarily detain and torture thousands of men, particularly Hazaras and other ethnic minorities. Many have been killed or disappeared. Prison conditions are inhumane.

The Taliban have made the rural Islamic custom of purdah, under which women are isolated from men who are not relatives and cannot leave home unless escorted by a close male relative, mandatory even in urban areas. The Taliban also ban women from working, thereby curtailing not only income, but also female-based relief services. In 1997, the Taliban largely banned female medical workers from working in Kabul's hospitals and restricted female patients, who must be accompanied by a close male relative to be treated, to a few poorly equipped hospitals. As a result, most women in Kabul have little or no access to health care.

A 1997 Taliban decree that aid to women is to be provided only through male relatives has sharply curtailed foreign-funded food-for-work programs, which had supported approximately 35,000 war widows in Kabul. After girls were banned from attending school, unemployed teachers formed privately-funded, underground "home schools" for girls. In June 1998, the Taliban ordered the closure of more than 100 home schools, as well as vocational centers for widows and other women in Kabul. Education is also poor for boys. Teachers are paid infrequently, and many fired female teachers have not been replaced.

Freedoms of speech, press, and association are sharply restricted. The Taliban closed the only television station in 1996, but air propaganda and issue decrees over Radio Voice of Shari'a. In July, the Taliban banned televisions, videocassette recorders, videos, and satellite dishes and began to destroy those found in shops. There are few, if any, civic institutions and no known trade unions.

The Taliban sharply restrict religious freedom and force men to grow beards and pray in mosques. The Hazara Shiite minority has faced particularly harsh treatment. In 1998, Afghanistan's warring parties killed scores of civilians through indiscriminate rocket and artillery attacks. Years of civil conflict have also internally displaced tens of thousands of people, including Tajiks and other ethnic minorities forcibly relocated by the Taliban since 1996. Approximately 1.2 million Afghans are refugees in Pakistan.

In areas beyond the Taliban's control, the rule of law is also non-existent. Justice is administered arbitrarily according to Shari'a and traditional customs. Rival groups torture and kill opponents and suspected sympathizers. In March, United Front soldiers killed at least eight people attending a peace rally in Mazar-i-Sharif. Opposition groups operate radio stations and publish propaganda newspapers.