(This op-ed was first published in Al Jazeera on October 26, 2020.)

The hypocrisy of the Taliban’s mantra of inclusion has been exposed during the intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha.

The Afghan peace process entered a pivotal phase with the start of the long-awaited intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha on September 12. Shortly after the talks commenced, however, the process was stalled due to disagreements over the procedural rules for the negotiations.

One of the two main points of divergence concerned the Taliban’s insistence on a particular Islamic jurisprudence – the Hanafi fiqh – as the sole religious basis for the negotiations. (The other issue revolved around whether or not the US-Taliban accord should form the overarching foundation, or the “mother deal,” underlying the intra-Afghan talks.)

(Continue reading the op-ed on Al Jazeera’s page here.)

Mehdi J. Hakimi is the Executive Director of the Rule of Law Program at Stanford Law School. He is an expert on Afghan law, he was the former Chair of the Law Department at the American University of Afghanistan. Hakimi has managed global legal reform initiatives sponsored by the US Department of State. He has advised international organisations, governments, elite academic and research institutions, and global law firms on, inter alia, the Afghan legal system.