By Afshain Afzal
Adopting the guise of Taliban does not entitle a license to forcibly marry an Afghan imprisoned Persian speaking young girl, raping her during interrogation process and then marrying her after few months. The young girl try flee to Pakistan to save herself from further humiliation but get caught at Pak-Afghan border at Torkhum, brought back to prison only to add to the miseries; she is divorced on the charges of wrong faith and disbeliever. In the backdrop, Afghan women rights activists counselled this ill-fated lady to make a video of her story and make public. In response of #justiceforElaha, Qari Saeed Khosti challenged, "If Elaha believes in the courts of the Islamic Emirate, she can lodge a complaint against me. If I am guilty, the court should punish me. If she does not believe in the courts of the Islamic Emirate, then I'm ready to go to any court that she wants." There are many questions that will rise in our minds; if Qari Saeed Khosti is a real Taliban why he is ready to go to any court other than courts of the Islamic Emirate where matters are decided on the basis of Islamic system of justice?
As per the details, Elaha Delawarzi is second wife of Qari Saeed Khosti, studying in fourth semester of the University of Medicine in Kabul, after marriage residing with Qari Saeed at Gulbahar Center in Kabul and she tried to flee but was caught by the security authorities from Pak-Afghan border at Torkham. She was sent to prison on her account with her Iranian and American connections, but her husband Qari Saeed took her back to his home. However, as a pre-plan Qari Saeed Khosti divorse her to allow her to become a chatter box against Islam, the Afghan orthodox Muslims and the Taliban. It is important to mention here that Elaha Delawarzi was daughter of top commander of National Defence Service (NDS) during the American invasion and per-liberation of Afghanistan. Elaha claim sin her video that her father is Afghan Army general. Reportedly, family of Elaha Delawarzi has presently in Pakistan.
In the released video by Elaha Delawarzi she has claimed that last year Qari Saeed Khosti came to the prisoners to take pictures to publish a report. After that Qari Saeed carried out rape with her and forced her to marry him. She also claims that Qari Saeed prepared a video of her rape in the prison but filmed another video after she was released from prison to make it public. She added in her claim that two months later of rape incident, Qari Saeed organized a wedding ceremony at one of Kabul's hotels. One wonders the video of Elaha Delawarzi once she was released from prison is an evidence as how a raped young girl can walk straight without making hue and cry. And the wedding pictures of Qari Saeed and Elaha Delawarzi in hotel at Kabul too are evidence as how can a university girl can act normal and maintain a smile after marrying a rapist.
The statements of Qari Saeed appearing in media in response to viral video of Elaha Delawarzi, "#justiceforElaha", clarified and claimed, “I married her six months ago at her request, but she was disbeliever, and I tried to guide her through conversation, but she insulted the holy things and I divorced her. I neither beat her nor tortured her.” However, American newspaper "Independent" reported, "On Wednesday night, a day after the video was released, the Taliban-run Supreme Court tweeted that Elaha had been arrested for defamation under an order from Chief Justice Abdul Hakeem Haqqani. Without mentioning that she has undergone any trial, she added that she "soon will be sentenced according to sharia law." Sharia refers to the code of conduct or religious law of Islam. "No one can damage the name of the Mujahideen or smear the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the 20 years of holy jihad," he said, referring to the Taliban and their war against US-led troops and the government close to Washington that insurgents overthrew just over a year ago." However, Twitter page for the Supreme Court, referring to its posting of the arrest, said that the post was fake.

In fact, the role of Taliban in the whole episode is what was also confirmed by Elaha, “A Taliban religious scholar made our marriage contract and asked him to teach me the Quran because I had become an apostate during the republican era, and Qari Saeed should also take me to the Hajj pilgrimage.” It is interesting to note that Elaha confirms that Qari Saeed Khosti went to Elaha’s father’s house to propose and a wedding ceremony was held in one of the hotels in Kabul city. Hence we cannot blame the actual Taliban for the acts of Qari Saeed, in case of his involvement. On the other hand, the affiliation of Qari Saeed with American can be judged from Qari Saeed Khosty tweet dated, On 18 May 2020, "With over 60000 U.S. servicemembers killed, many more wounded, and nearly a trillion dollars spent to date, America’s leaders must now initiate a withdrawal plan that stops a decades-long hemorrhaging of American blood and treasure". Which means he had no sympathy for the Afghans brutally killed during American occupation but was more concerned about trillion American dollars wasted in Afghanistan.
American newspaper, Independent wites "On Wednesday night, a day after the video was released, the Taliban-run Supreme Court tweeted that Elaha had been arrested for defamation under an order from Chief Justice Abdul Hakeem Haqqani. Without mentioning that she has undergone any trial, he added that she "soon will be sentenced according to sharia law." The newspaper reports, "No one can damage the name of the Mujahideen or smear the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the 20 years of holy jihad," he said, referring to the Taliban and their war against US-led troops and the government close to Washington that insurgents overthrew just over a year ago. However, another Twitter page for the Supreme Court said in a post on Thursday that the other was fake, referring to its posting of the arrest.
Qari Saeed Khosti remained popular on social media for his pro-Taliban propaganda. One wonders is he really a Taliban or spying for someone? Qari Saeed was appointed as Interior Ministry spokesman when the Taliban took over the control of Afghanistan on USA's withdrawal on 15 August 2021. The question arises why he was sacked in March 2022 from his position. Is it due to Iranian connection or being American paid guy? Although the US State Department has designated the Haqqani Network as an international terrorist group, their leader including Qari Saeed Khosti and Anas Haqqani and many members of the group have Twitter accounts with thousands of followers. It is interesting to note that Afghan citizens who worked for international forces, organizations, media and others were critical of the Taliban on social media have been official pardoned by Taliban in various announcements but Human rights organisations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are carrying out misleading propaganda that Taliban fighters are searching for them to kill them in target kilings and attacks.
Qari Saeed, a self-proclaimed social media director of the Taliban since long was openly giving interviews to foreign media about his team's involvement in social media network, focusing on Twitter - Taliban hashtags trending as well as disseminating messages on WhatsApp and Facebook and others forums. Highly provocative statement were a common practice, "Our enemies have television, radio, verified accounts on social media and we have none, yet we fought with them on Twitter and Facebook and defeated them." Saeed was involved is airing propaganda videos glorifying Taliban fighters and their battles against foreign forces and international organizations. The modus operandai of Saeed Khosti is that he and his other members of the group hoist or publishes freely on Twitter and YouTube and Facebook that tarnish the image of Taliban as terrorist and these social media platforms as per the rules were forced to declare the Taliban a "dangerous organisation" and removed all accounts and pages associated with them. Accordingly, Facebook has imposed ban Taliban content from its platforms but surprisingly not Qari Saeed.
In the recent months, the grip over the orthodox Muslims in Afghanistan is getting tighter. The international community, the United Nations, diplomatic corps and Human Rights organizations have joined hands to declare Taliban and other religious groups unlawful in order to pronounce an official censure and sanctions. Behind the game are certain characters who are engaged in defamatory campaign against Taliban and religious leadership. On 02 September 2022, UN diplomatic mission in Afghanistan said in a statement, "We call on the de-facto authorities to transparently investigate all alleged violations of women's rights, to hold perpetrators to account and to ensure safety of Afghan women and girls." The United Nations has called on the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan to investigate allegations of the forced marriage and abuse of Elaha Delawarzi, a medical student by an ex-Taliban official that has sparked strong condemnation by many Afghans. One wonders, why Taliban are being asked to investigate when Qari Saeed Khosti, a self-programmed Taliban, expelled from duties of a spokesman in March 2022 and facing allegations, which if found true destined him punishment in this world and the world hereafter. No doubt, the available evidences suggest that both are working on foreign agenda against Afghanistan interest, nevertheless, the charges leveled by Elaha Delawarzi are serious enough that should be thoroughly investigated under the Islamic law.