Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Taliban Authoritarianism, December 26, 2022.
Omar Sadr, an author and research scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, said the Taliban has strategically used the Islamic concept of “taqiya,” or deliberate deception, to mislead the international community.
“The group’s stance was ambiguous as it never promised basic human rights based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, gender equality, and democratic governance,” said Sadr. “Many interpreted the ambiguous stance as moderation. But there was no evidence to support the assumption that the Taliban aimed to moderate.”