11 The Fate of Village Councils established in the 1990s, according to Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili in her seminal work, ‘Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan’:11 With the demise of the communist regime in 1992 and the rise of the mujahidin and Taliban, the institution of the shura was elevated to the state level.… The term shura again assumed centrality but was more strongly tinged with th. [...] An interviewee from Kunduz, who was the head of the village council, told us that the shura in his village was still elected in the same manner as during the previous government, except now there were no longer any female council members: It’s the same shura as during the Republic and the members are still elected by the people. [...] However, in other places, as a retired police officer from Baghlan said, the same elected shura was still in place but was now completely ignored by the IEA: The same shura existed during the Republic and the head of the shura’s also the same. [...] This [mosque] council’s in touch with the village council and they share the problems of the mosque and the village with the village councils. [...] Instead, the IEA has appointed representatives to act as a link between the government and villages, as a journalist in the province explained: After the Taleban came to power, the village councils in Kunar province were suspended and there’s no longer an entity working under the name of ‘shura’ or ‘association’ in the province.
- Pages
- 57
- Published in
- Afghanistan
Table of Contents
- Introduction 4
- Summary of findings 7
- The village council: an enduring “bricolage” 10
- Community Development Councils 13
- Evidence from the field: what has survived? 18
- Village councils in 2022 19
- Village councils in 2023 24
- Perceptions of village councils’ powers after the August 2021 takeover 30
- The representativeness of the councils 32
- The influence and legitimacy of the councils 36
- Village councils in 2024 39
- Dissolution of the CDCs by order of the Amir 43
- Conclusion 46
- Annex 1 – Table of Interviews, 2023 50
- Annex 2 – The Questionnaire, 2023 51
- Annex 3 – Letters from the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development abolishing Community Development Councils 53