An 18-year-old woman, her face completely covered by a niqab and wearing sunglasses, stands before a former Taliban commander who is now a senior official in northern Afghanistan. She wants a divorce from her husband, whom she accuses of abusing and beating her for months.

“If there were any chance of us living together, I would not be here. I have made my decision,” she tells him.

The scene, filmed by the BBC as part of a revealing report from inside the Taliban’s world, captures the reality of Afghanistan five years after the group’s return to power. The official facing the young woman is Abdullah Sarhadi, a former Taliban military commander.

At first, he tries to persuade her to stay in the marriage. “Ask yourself: ‘Who will marry me after I get divorced?’ You will have to make many compromises, otherwise you will lose your dignity and honour,” he tells her. Her reply is immediate. “Governor, my honour and dignity have already been destroyed.”

‘Women are brainless and lacking in intelligence’

Sarhadi insists the young woman, whom the BBC calls Tooba (not her real name), should remain in the marriage. He later remarks in front of male officials, bodyguards and elders that women are “brainless” and “lack intelligence,” prompting laughter from those present.

According to the BBC’s report, the woman’s husband is demanding, in exchange for agreeing to the divorce, a sum four times what was paid at the time of the marriage, which her family refuses to pay. The governor proposes giving the woman a separate room and having officials warn the husband not to hit her again, or he will be sent to prison.

The family is not convinced. Her father says he will take the matter to court, despite the fact that under the Taliban’s judicial system it is extremely difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce without her husband’s consent.

From Guantanamo to power

Sarhadi’s own story is typical of the path taken by many of those who now govern Afghanistan. According to the BBC, he was a military commander during the Taliban’s first period in power in the 1990s. He surrendered in 2001, when the US-led coalition toppled the regime, and spent years in detention at the Guantanamo Bay facility before eventually being released.

After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, he became governor, first of Bamyan province and then of Jawzjan. He recently took up a post as deputy commander of a military corps in Kunduz.

Speaking to the BBC, he shows no sign of remorse for one of the Taliban’s most notorious acts of destruction: the demolition of the giant Buddha statues in Bamyan in 2001. He initially avoids answering questions on the subject. Eventually, he says: “I destroyed them with my own hands. Everything we did, and everything we do, is in accordance with God’s guidance and law. We smash idols rather than sell them. Why should I regret it? It was God’s will,” he adds.

From suicide attacks to running the prisons

In Kabul, the BBC met another man who moved from armed struggle into running the new regime. Habibullah Badr admits that he was previously “responsible for suicide bomber operations” in the Afghan capital. “I know all the streets and alleyways very well. We had all the information we needed for Kabul,” he says.

The Taliban’s suicide attacks cost thousands of lives in Afghanistan, including many civilians. Badr, however, appears reluctant to discuss specific attacks, saying that doing so could “reopen wounds.” Asked about civilian deaths, he maintains that the Taliban’s targets were American convoys and that civilians had been warned to stay away from foreign military bases.

Badr later became deputy head of the country’s entire prison system. He ended up running the very prison where he himself had once been held, sentenced to death by the previous government.

An awkward moment in front of a Taliban official

At a gathering held in Badr’s honour, one man dares to raise the issue of girls’ education in public. “Mr Badr is a source of pride for Afghanistan and a great fighter. But I do have one complaint. If schools and education were open to everyone, it would be a great achievement for Afghanistan. I hope I am not offending you,” says Sultan Mohammad Talai.

An awkward silence follows. Shortly afterwards, the microphone is taken away. “I asked for schools to reopen for girls. Seeking knowledge is an obligation in Islam for both men and women,” he later explained to the BBC. “There were other things I wanted to say, but I was not allowed to continue,” he added.

‘We must see everything through the lens of sharia’

Five years after the Taliban’s return, women have been shut out of most workplaces, are barred from attending university and are not permitted to travel alone or visit parks and recreational spaces.

The BBC raised the issue with the Taliban government’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, who for the first time publicly revealed that his real name is Tahir Shah Sediqi.‘We must see everything through the lens of sharia‘

In 2021, two days after the fall of Kabul, he had said that women would be able to work and study “within the boundaries” set by the Taliban and would play an active role in society. Asked why these promises had not been kept, he replied: “We are committed to women’s rights, to freedom of speech and to other things, within sharia. We have to see everything through the lens of sharia.”

He also argued that the presence of women in offices like his own “would lead to immorality” and “would undermine their dignity.” On women’s education, he said the issue “is under discussion” and that a “sharia-based solution” was required.