By Faheem Al-Hamid

So far, the strategy that experts have read through the statements of the Taliban movement’s leaders is that it wants to change the image that the Taliban has been painted over the past decades that it is a terrorist movement.

And this appears to be the case from the movement’s fighters avoiding entering into a war to control cities, as this option too was available to it, in addition to securing diplomatic missions in Kabul.

It also pledged that it will not loot or ransack cities or kill government employees and officials, both military and civilians, in addition to its assurance of ensuring the safety and security of embassies, international missions and charities. They have vowed that they will allow them to continue their work without fear, as well as the “popular welcome” of its return to power.

Here, observers wonder whether the Taliban will be able to rule a people that have witnessed all these radical liberties and have opened to the world and will not be satisfied with imposition of a strict lifestyle, as in the past, especially since the Afghan society has become a believer in pluralism and refuses to monopolize power.

Although the movement has softened its discourse on the status of women, the actions on the ground will reveal the nature of the movement's repositioning and the radical modification of its ideas and beliefs.

After the Taliban took control of most of Afghanistan, the features of life that were taking shape over the past two decades seemed to evaporate, along with the dreams of many Afghan women, who are threatened by the veil of burqa and deprivation of education and work.

If we go back to the past, in the fall of 1996, the Taliban seized the capital Kabul to enforce their brutal rule, depriving women of most of their basic rights, outlawing music and all other forms of art, and forcing males to grow beards and not wear Western dress.

The Taliban had refused to buckle under any pressure to expel the leaders of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, which led to the US intervention following the Sept. 11 attacks and its overthrow. It is certain that past events have revealed a change in the Taliban’s strategy, and in its internal and external dealings, from what the movement was in 20 years ago.

However, some experts believe otherwise, claiming that the Taliban movement has changed, and has begun to show a kind of political realism. Experts build this opinion on the Taliban’s management of the current conflict, not relying on armed force and avoiding direct military confrontations as a first option, but rather using notables, tribal leaders and historical figures to negotiate and mediate with government and army officials in those cities, and then settling for the process of taking power peacefully.

And in that they showed they are organized, as well as the statements of the leaders of the movement that the Taliban reveal that they sought to avoid the shedding of Afghan blood, and not to follow a policy of revenge or executions, unlike what they did in 1996.