This month’s guest speakers explored the multifaceted manifestations and perceptions of Taliban rule.
The latest webinar hosted by the Afghanistan Legal Research Network (ALRN) at the Max Planck Foundation featured the discussion of the Taliban’s exercise of public power in Afghanistan between Dr Haroun Rahimi and Dr Mujib Abid. The debate zoomed in on the trajectories of statecraft and its foreign influences, and the collisions or alignments of pre-modern and later readings of Islamic governance.
The discussants were united in their rejection of a simplistic dismissal of Taliban endeavours as aberrant and anachronistic. On the basis of their published works, each subjected the Taliban’s de facto rule to close and critical scrutiny against the backdrop of Afghanistan’s historical development with its changing thrusts of social engineering and institutional experimentation.
These exchanges were broadened into a lively question-and-answer session with participants, giving the discussants the opportunity to share further and valuable insights grounded in their current research.
The webinar was part of a series of the project ‘Civil Society and the Rule of Law in Afghanistan’ , funded by the German Foreign Office.