The resolution passed by the “Great Assembly” in Kabul over the weekend includes eleven points.

The more than 3,000 participants in the gathering, mostly Islamic scholars, but also some - male - dignitaries and representatives of society and business, declare the "interim government" of the Islamic Emirates of the Taliban in Afghanistan to be legitimate and call for its recognition by the international community as well as the release of the Afghan central bank's frozen foreign assets.

Alexander Haneke

Editor in Politics.

  • Follow I follow

However, the resolution remains vague on exactly those points that the international community made a prerequisite for recognition: the guarantee of fundamental rights for women too, the opening of schools for girls above the sixth grade and the demand for an "inclusive" government - a cabinet that also includes other groups beyond the Taliban.

Pashtun-dominated government

If you want, you could read the demand for an inclusive government from the request to the emirate to set incentives for national unity.

Most members of the Taliban are Pashtuns, and they also occupy most of the departments in the emirate's cabinet.

But in the reality of Afghanistan, according to estimates, Pashtuns make up just under 40 percent of the population.

The fact that the other ethnic groups are hardly represented has been heavily criticized at home and abroad since the cabinet was presented.

In Afghanistan, however, the future of girls' education is being observed even more closely.

Since the Islamists took power in August last year, schools above sixth grade have generally only been open to boys, even if there are exceptions in some provinces.

In March, the government announced that girls would be admitted to all grades again, but then - apparently after an intervention by hardliners in the cabinet - temporarily suspended the opening again until further notice.

Several religious scholars had campaigned at the meeting to finally lift this ban.

The adopted resolution is not so explicit, but the call for a "modern education system in the light of Sharia" can be found among the points.

The very term "modern" can already be seen as a big step for an assembly whose members mostly come from the ranks of the Taliban or are close to them.

For the vast majority of religious scholars, the reference to the Sharia does not rule out girls being allowed to attend school.

In the same section there is also a call to respect the rights of ethnic minorities and women, although there is also a restriction on conformity with Islamic law.

confrontation is avoided

A completely different question will be what the Taliban government will do with the catalogue.

Their spokesman had repeatedly emphasized that they had great respect for the assembly and that their advice would be respected.

However, the formulations are kept so soft that they do not put the management under too much pressure to act.

But there is a tailwind for those forces that advocate - by Taliban standards - progressive politics.

In any case, how the upper ranks of the Taliban perceived the mood within the assembly and what was discussed behind the scenes could have more consequences.

Because open disputes and confrontations have always been alien to the movement;

Conflicts were always settled in the back room.

This spirit also pervades the resolution, which in its eleventh point demands that "provocations" by Islamic clerics via the media must stop.