Taliban hoist large flag in Kabul, eight months after return to energy in Afghanistan

The Taliban raised a large white flag of their motion on a hill overlooking the Afghan capital Thursday in a ceremony held almost eight months after they returned to energy.

Several hundred Taliban, many armed, attended the ceremony presided over by Abdul Salam Hanafi, a deputy prime minister, on the hill in Wazir Akbar Khan, close to the principally abandoned diplomatic enclave in Kabul.

Measuring 40 metres (130 ft) vast and 26 metres excessive, the white flag is adorned with the Islamic occupation of religion in black letters.

Some of these in attendance confirmed their pleasure by touching or grabbing the flag earlier than it was raised.

READ | Taliban ban girls in Afghanistan from flying with out male chaperone

“Today, a flag has been hoisted which is the flag of independence, peace and brotherhood, and the symbol of the rules of the Islamic system,” stated Hanafi.

“It is not the flag of the Taliban or the mullahs, it is the flag of the whole nation that has made sacrifices. This flag belongs to the whole of Afghanistan.”

The Afghan nationwide flag had been a black, crimson and inexperienced vertical tricolour with the nationwide emblem overlaid in white, however the Taliban have ordered all authorities departments to show the white commonplace as an alternative.

After returning to energy in August, the Taliban promised a softer model of the tough rule that characterised their first stint in energy from 1996 to 2001, however restrictions have crept again — usually carried out regionally on the whim of native officers.

The flag-raising comes every week after the Taliban shut down all ladies’ secondary faculties simply hours after they allowed them to reopen for the primary time since August.

In current days, they’ve additionally barred girls from flying until accompanied by a male family member, and decreed women and men can’t go to parks within the capital on the identical days.

Women are more and more being shut out of public life — barred from most authorities jobs, and ordered to decorate in accordance with the Taliban’s strict interpretation of the Koran.

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