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Afghanistan is an Islamic theocratic emirate ruled by the Taliban movement, in which the supreme leader's word is law and religious doctrine. Supreme leaders issue decrees from isolation in Kandahar, which are the ultimate source of all law. There is a process for the drafting of legislation, initiated by the relevant cabinet ministry and then screened by the Ministry of Justice for approval by the supreme leader. This process exists only to assist the supreme leader and he regularly enacts law without it. The formality of the process varies, but any order from the supreme leader becomes law once he speaks it, so all that are conveyed to the public by Taliban representatives are listed here regardless of whether there is a written decree. Hibatullah Akhundzada has been supreme leader since the Taliban took control of the government in August 2021, and he has issued a large number of decrees, many of which have imposed his cultural views, ultraconservative even by Taliban standards, on the country with no opportunity for public consultation. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Date promulgated | Description | Text/quote | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
7 September 2021 | Appointment of caretaker cabinet led by Hasan Akhund. | [5] | |
3 December 2021 | Outlines the civil rights of women, including marriage and property rights, and instructs the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Information and Culture, the Supreme Court, and provincial and district governors to implement them. | [6] | |
11 January 2022 | Creates a Kandahar ulama council to address provincial issues. In reality Akhundzada has since been consulting it on matters of national importance. | [7] [8] | |
3 April 2022 | Bans the production of opium and all other narcotics. | [9] | |
7 May 2022 | Orders women to only leave their homes when necessary, and to fully cover their bodies when they do, preferably with a burqa, and approves punishments for male guardians of women violating the order. | [10] | |
20 May 2022 | Bans Taliban members from taking multiple wives. | [11] | |
22 June 2022 | Announces death toll of the June 2022 Afghanistan earthquake and orders response efforts. | [12] | |
21 July 2022 | Bans criticism of the regime (referred to euphemistically as "false accusations"). | [13] | |
4 August 2022 | Nullifies the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan and the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan. | [14] | |
13 November 2022 | Orders judges to implement corporal punishments for all Hudud and Qisas offenses. | [15] [16] | |
11 January 2023 | Creates Ulema councils in 13 provinces to manage local issues. | [17] | |
22 January 2023 | Appointment of Mohammad Esa Thani as Acting Minister of Public Works. | [18] | |
29 January 2023 | Appointment of Hanif Abada as Chief of Police of Ghor Province and Qari Gul Haider as Deputy Governor of Ghazni Province. | [19] | |
18 March 2023 | Prohibits the cultivation of hemp and cannabis and orders the Ministry of Interior Affairs to bring violators to court. Mandates the destruction of crops and orders courts to punish violators. | [20] | |
19 March 2023 | Prohibits government officials from hiring relatives. Applies retroactively so that any relatives already hired must be fired. | [21] | |
Orders destruction of all seized drugs and alcohol and the tools used to make them, and orders punishment of producers and sellers. Directs the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the General Directorate of Intelligence, and the Ministry of Public Health to implement the order before the courts. | |||
19 April 2023 | Eid al-Fitr message. Outlines codes of conduct for judges and security forces. | [22] | |
17 May 2023 | Temporary appointment of Abdul Kabir as Acting Prime Minister of Afghanistan while Hasan Akhund was recovering from an illness in Kandahar. Hasan Akhund returned to Kabul on 17 July. | [23] [24] | |
4 July 2023 | Bans hair and beauty salons, effective in one month. | [25] |
Mullah Muhammad Omar was an Afghan mujahideen commander, revolutionary, and the cleric who founded the Taliban. During the Third Afghan Civil War, the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of the country, establishing the First Islamic Emirate for which Omar began to serve as Supreme Leader in 1996. Shortly after al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks, the Taliban government was toppled by an American invasion of Afghanistan, prompting Omar to go into hiding. He successfully evaded capture by the American-led coalition before dying in 2013 from tuberculosis.
The prime minister of Afghanistan, officially the prime minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the head of government of Afghanistan.
The Council of Ministers of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is the executive body of the government of Afghanistan, responsible for day-to-day governance and the implementation of policy set by the Leadership. It is headed by the prime minister—who serves as the nation's head of government—and his deputies, and consists of the heads and deputy heads of the government ministries.
Mohammed Abdul Kabir is a senior member of the Taliban leadership who is a militant leader and, since 4 October 2021, the acting third deputy prime minister for political affairs of Afghanistan in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime. He previously was the acting prime minister of Afghanistan from 16 April 2001 to 13 November 2001.
Sirajuddin Haqqani is an Afghan warlord and Specially Designated Global Terrorist who is the first deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acting interior minister in the internationally unrecognized post-2021 Taliban regime. He has been a deputy leader of the Taliban since 2015, and was additionally appointed to his ministerial role after the Taliban's victory over Western-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. He has led the Haqqani network, a semi-autonomous paramilitary arm of the Taliban, since inheriting it from his father in 2018, and has primarily had military responsibilities within the Taliban.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is the state agency in charge of implementing Islamic law in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as defined by the Taliban. It was first instituted in 1992 by the Rabbani government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and adopted in 1996 by the Taliban government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of 1996–2001. The ministry was restored in the reinstated Islamic Emirate in September 2021 after the August fall of Kabul.
Zabihullah Mujahid is an Afghan militant spokesperson who has been the chief spokesman for the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since 25 October 2021 and their Deputy Minister of Information and Culture since 7 September 2021. He has long served as one of several spokesmen for the Taliban, the others being Suhail Shaheen and Yousef Ahmadi. Mujahid commented mainly on the Taliban's activities in eastern, northern, and central Afghanistan, while Ahmadi focused on the western and southern regions. In addition to being the government's main spokesman, Mujahid serves as a personal spokesman for Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The Republic of Afghanistan, which is an Islamic Republic under Sharia Law, allows for polygyny. Afghan men may take up to four wives, as Islam allows for such. A man must treat all of his wives equally; however, it has been reported that these regulations are rarely followed. While the Qur'an states that a man is allowed a maximum of four wives, there is an unspecified number of women allowed to be his 'concubines'. These women are considered unprotected and need a man as a guardian.
The Leadership Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also translated as the Supreme Council, is an advisory council to the Supreme Leader of Afghanistan. The supreme leader convenes and chairs the council at his sole discretion. He has ultimate authority and may override or circumvent it at any time. It played a key role in directing the Taliban insurgency from Quetta, Pakistan, which led to it being informally referred to as the Quetta Shura at the time.
Muhammad Rasul was the leader of the High Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a Taliban dissident group in Afghanistan, until the group's dissolution in 2021. He was a Taliban-appointed governor of Nimruz Province, Afghanistan. Rasul exerted pressure and suppression on Pashtun factions unpopular with the Taliban, and made a considerable fortune controlling cross-border drug-smuggling through Nimruz.
Afghanistan–United Arab Emirates relations refers to the bilateral relations between Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In December 2022, Afghan Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob along with Anas Haqqani made an official visit to the UAE. There he met with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Vice President Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, also spelled Haibatullah Akhunzada, is an Afghan cleric who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime. He has led the Taliban since 2016, and came to power with its victory over U.S.-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. A highly reclusive figure, he has almost no digital footprint except for an unverified photograph and several audio recordings of speeches.
Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid is an Afghan militant commander and cleric who is the second deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acting defense minister in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime since 2021. He has been a deputy leader of the Taliban since 2016, and was additionally appointed to his ministerial role after the Taliban's victory over Western-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. He has been the Taliban's military chief since 2020.
Abdul Hakim Haqqani, also known as Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, is an Afghan Islamic scholar and writer who has been the chief justice of Afghanistan since 2021 in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime. He has also served as chief justice of the Supreme Court in the 1996–2001 Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He was the chairman of the Taliban negotiation team in the Qatar office. He is one of the founding members of the Taliban and was a close associate of the late leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
The Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, officially the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and also styled by his religious title Amir al-Mu'minin, is the absolute ruler, head of state, and national religious leader of Afghanistan, as well as the leader of the Taliban. The supreme leader wields unlimited authority and is the ultimate source of all law.
Mohammad Hasan Akhund is an Afghan mullah, politician and Taliban leader who is currently the acting prime minister of Afghanistan in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime since 7 September 2021.
The politics of Afghanistan are based on a totalitarian emirate within the Islamic theocracy in which the Taliban Movement holds a monopoly on power. Dissent is not permitted, and politics are mostly limited to internal Taliban policy debates and power struggles. As the government is provisional, there is no constitution or other basis for the rule of law. The structure is autocratic, with all power concentrated in the hands of the supreme leader and his clerical advisors. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Afghanistan was as of 2023 the 4th least electoral democratic country in the world.
The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political power concentrated in the hands of a supreme leader and his clerical advisors, collectively referred to as the Leadership. The Leadership makes all major policy decisions behind closed doors, which are then implemented by the country's civil service and judiciary. As Afghanistan is an Islamic state, governance is based on Sharia law and Pashtunwali, which the Taliban enforces strictly through extensive social and cultural policy.
The General Directorate of Intelligence is the Afghan national intelligence and security agency under the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Ulema Gathering was a three days gathering of the Afghan scholars and elders from 29 June 2022 to 2 July 2022. About 3,000 people from across the country gathered at the Loya Jirga Hall in the capital, Kabul, Afghanistan. Three representatives from each village are invited, most of them were clerics. The meeting was broadcast on radio but not on TV. Taliban Supreme Leader Hebatullah Akhundzada also addressed the council. The gathering of scholars was concluded by the speech of Prime minister of Afghanistan, Hasan Akhund.
[Akhundzada] has not convened the Taliban's Leadership Council (a 'politburo' of top leaders and commanders) for several months. Instead, he relies on the narrower Kandahar Council of Clerics for legal advice.