[KhaamaPress] The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s front man Zabihullah Mujahid has announced that the grand assembly of the Taliban
 ...mindless ferocity in a turban...
is set to take place tomorrow, Thursday, in Kabul at the Loya Jirga hall.
The assembly, reportedly, will bring together 3,000 tribal elders, influential figures, and Ulema to Kabul from all over the country.
The Taliban leadership convenes the assembly of Islamic holy mans at the Ulema’s repeated request, a senior Taliban official, Zabihullah Mujahid previously stated on his Twitter account without mentioning a specific date.
Many organizations and groups, including Human Rights Watch, the National Resistance® Front, and political analysts, are concerned about the Taliban’s Grand Assembly’s participants.
Heather Barr, the co-director of Human Rights Watch’s division for women’s rights, no other groupss will be allowed to speak during the Taliban Jirga, and participants from all groups, including will not be there. She emphasized that a decision-making body excluding women will not be legitimate.
The National Resistance® Front’s Council of Ulema, released a statement on Tuesday claiming that the participants of the gathering will be the Taliban loyalists and will not speak for the Afghan people.
Anas Haqqani, the Interior Minister of the Taliban government, said this previously on two separate occasions, that the issue of the reopening of the girls’ schools will be discussed by a gathering of the holy mans.
There are no indications, however, of what the upcoming assembly of the holy mans will discuss.
Hanafi said that the gathering will be attended by clerics, influential figures, political figures and national businesspeople.
“They will discuss Afghan issues: national unity, nationwide security and stabilization and other issues. Once they sit together, the results will be shared,” he said.
Hanafi said a range of topics such as the Islamic system, independence, national unity, and economic and social issues will be discussed at the gathering.
He said that there are no obstacles for participation of young people, but he did not mention if any women would be participating in the gathering.
This comes as Jamiat-e-Islami
...not The Islamic Society founded in Lahore in 1941 that opposed the independence of Bangladesh and is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, but the primarily Tajik party whose militant arm used to be the Northern Alliance and in the current generation is called the National Resistance Front (NRF).... in a statement downplayed the gathering as symbolic and said that holding the gathering will not bring any benefit for countering the current crisis.
The gathering will last for three days.
Men to Represent Women in the Taliban’s Grand Assembly: Taliban Leader
[KhaamaPress] Taliban’s religious scholar and tribal elders grand gathering, which is to be held tomorrow at the Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul, will convene without the participation of women, said the deputy prime minister of the Taliban, Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, on Wednesday.
Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, the deputy prime minister of the Taliban, in an interview with the state run National Television, stated that the meeting will be attended by over 3,000 religious scholars, tribal elders, intellectuals, influential figures and national traders on Thursday.
When prompted whether women could attend the Taliban’s grand gathering, deputy minister Hanafi responded that male delegates would speak on their behalf.
“The women are our mothers, sisters, we greatly respect them, when their sons are in the gathering it signifies that they are also involved, in a way, in the gathering,” he said.
The senior Taliban official responded that the assembly was called at the Ulema’s request and that the Taliban organized it so that they could discuss a variety of topics, including but not limited to the Islamic regime, national unity, and the improvement of economic and social affairs, to the question regarding the gathering’s agenda.
The top Taliban official expressed hope as he said that the group expects a positive outcome from the gathering and that more of these events would be arranged in the future.
According to civil society groups, if women are not present, the gathering will not be legitimate.
However, it still remains unclear what issues would be discussed at the gathering and whether the issue of reopening girls’ schools and women rights are included in the agenda.
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