The AP has found a list of rules the Taliban has put out for its fighters in Afghanistan (and possibly North Pakistan). A very creepy sampling:
– No. 9: Taliban may not use jihad equipment or property for personal ends.
– No. 10: Every Talib is accountable to his superiors in matters of money spending and equipment usage.
– No. 12: A group of mujahedeen may not take in mujahedeen from another group to increase their own power.
– No. 16: It is forbidden to search houses or confiscate weapons without a commander’s permission.
– No. 17: Militants have no right to confiscate money or possessions from civilians.
– No. 18: Fighters “should refrain from smoking cigarettes.”
– No. 19: Mujahedeen may not take boys without facial hair onto the battlefield, or into their private quarters. This last seems to be an attempt to clamp down on sexual abuse of young boys, a common problem in the area.
– No. 24: No one shall work as a teacher “under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels.”
– No. 25: Teachers who ignore Taliban warnings will be killed.
These final two are the scariest. The Taliban is doing what it can to stop teachers from instructing Afghanistan’s youth, and it turns out teachers — Allah bless them — can’t be stopped by cease-and-desist letters, even when backed by death threats. As a result, 198 schools have been burned and 20 teachers murdered in 2006.
It is somewhat bizarre that the Taliban will punish teaching with death but is struggling to control the child molestation problem in its midst.
