No, he is no longer a member of the Taliban, says Jalaluddin Shinwari.

A "but" hovers over the sentence.

And even if you meet the friendly gentleman more often and talk to him for a long time - it doesn't go away.

Shinwari was deputy minister of justice during the Taliban's rule over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. He now lives in Kabul and has recently become something of a Taliban expert on Afghan and foreign media.

With every district and with every city that the insurgents take over, the need for classification grows.

Christian Meier

Editor in politics.

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Did they just pretend that they were willing to negotiate and planned from the start to subjugate the whole country again by force of arms?

And would they then rule as cruelly as they did in the 1990s?

Is it on the statements of their representatives that they will not be able to give anything?

How will women fare under a Taliban government?

Observer or sympathizer?

Shinwari always seriously addresses all of these questions.

He sits upright in front of the bookshelf in his apartment that identifies him as an Islamic scholar.

But what else he is is never entirely clear: an informed but uninvolved observer?

A sympathizer?

Or someone who maybe no longer formally, but somehow still belongs to the movement?

He only gives his advice for the good of the whole country, says Shinwari. So he personally supports a ceasefire. "I don't want anyone to be killed, be it an Afghan soldier or a police officer or a member of the Taliban." - in other words: will not come under international pressure. What he doesn't mention is that these negotiations started almost a year ago in Doha, but were soon bogged down.

The Taliban's worldview is also reflected in other descriptions of the state of Shinwari. Ideologically he is close to the political wing of the movement around Mullah Baradar, which led the negotiations in Doha. It is unlikely, however, that he would speak in favor of this tendency among the Taliban. It is true that he says of the founder of the Taliban: "Mullah Omar was a good friend," and he is in contact with the current leadership. But experts believe that the 65-year-old Islamic scholar came to the Taliban by chance. They would have wanted someone in their ranks from eastern Afghanistan. Shinwari never fought with the Islamists. He had gone to Pakistan with his family during the communist era, where he was tutored in Islamic theology by his father, a former judge.Later he went to Kabul. After the Taliban captured the city in 1996, they asked if he wanted to work for them.

Daring comparisons

He has little interest in the current government in the Kabul presidential palace: the "Arg", claims Shinwari, is not committed to peace "because they want to stay where they are".

The government has embezzled millions of dollars in aid since 2001;

Politicians and other influential people illegally appropriated thousands of hectares of land.

To underline the argument, Shinwari has a special punch line: Everything he lists is in the reports of the American special inspector for the Afghanistan mission.