Sharia Council Scholar Supports Taliban's Views On Women, Says They Must Be Given A Chance

A United Kingdom Sharia Council member has sided with the Taliban despite the recent bloodshed controversies, and argued in their defense that the group has “grown-up”.

According to Daily Mail, Khola Hasan maintained that every single person she knew as a Muslim was reportedly rejoicing over the return of the group to power. The Taliban took over Afghanistan last week, and vowed to protect the rights of the women and also grant amnesty to all those who worked with the Americans.

Hasan who was visibly not in support of everything that was being floated about the group, averred that the western media was allegedly obsessed with misinterpreting the religion. Recent footage of the Taliban fighters on Facebook, flogging a group of young men in jeans for allegedly disrespecting Islam, sparked global outrage.

In response to the brutal public flogging incidents and crackdowns, Hasan implored people to understand that Afghanistan was a “tribal society with tribal loyalties,” and that the country came with decades of violence and occupation. She termed the recent attacks as “minor incidents” that shouldn’t have been blown out of proportion.

“The kind of language that came out from Western media when the Taliban took over — civil war, monsters, they're going to slaughter people, it's going to be awful, poor women, oh blah blah blah we're going to cry our eyes out, poor women are going back into Medieval times, and all the rest of it,” said Hasan, as stated in the report. She highlighted how the Taliban had evolved over the decades, and it was their lack of exposure and access to education that led to barbaric laws and a spate of violence-induced incidents in the past.

“It's been misrepresented for so long that I've got used to it, I don't even blink an eyelid anymore,” she added. Hasan averred that the transformation was slow yet steady, and the group was learning. She implored people to give them a chance and adapt to the changing times, which was an ordeal in itself.

Her comments come after the United States and Germany strictly advised their citizens in Afghanistan against traveling to Kabul airport. Scores of people continued to be gripped by fear, imposing major security risks as they gathered to flee. About 12 fatalities have been reported around the single-runway airfield since last Sunday. The deaths were attributed to stampedes as well as from being shot.

The Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has sparked speculations about the return to a stringent version of the Islamic law, which the Sunni Muslim groups had exercised during their reign about two decades ago.