The Taliban leaders begin to laugh at the idea and Commander Khatab asks for the filming to stop.
The Taliban leaders begin to laugh at the idea and Commander Khatab asks for the filming to stop.
A video has gone viral of a Taliban fighter collapsing with laughter when asked about democratically voted in female politicians – and telling the camera to stop filming as he loses it.
In the viral clip, part of a documentary on the Taliban shot earlier this year, a female journalist quizzes three Taliban leaders who were expressing hope Afghanistan would have a Taliban president soon.
On the question of whether women's rights were possible under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the men's reaction was affirmative.
The Taliban leaders begin to laugh at the idea and Commander Khatab asks for the filming to stop.
But then the reporter asks: "Does that mean people will be allowed to vote in women politicians?"
The leaders break out in laughter and one of them – identified as Commander Khatab – asks her to stop filming the video as he shakes with mirth.
The interviewer is Vice News's Hind Hassan, the only woman in the crew that went to Taliban-held territory in the then Afghan government-controlled country several months ago.
Hassan was asked to wear a traditional blue Afghan burqa for the interview, Vice News reported.
The interviewer is Hind Hassan, the only woman in a crew that went to Taliban-held territory in the then Afghan government-controlled country several months ago.
As the world watched the Taliban take over Afghanistan, the country's president flee and the insurgents storming the capital Kabul, a clip of the video emerged and has gone viral with millions of views.
It may provide further doubt about the so-called "Taliban 2.0" as a somewhat moderate version of Taliban 1.0 that reigned in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
In their first address to the press after taking Kabul, the Taliban leadership on Tuesday made it clear the Taliban had changed in the last 20 years.
Though their ideologies remain the same, the group says it now has matured and does not want rivalry, revenge or overt suppression.
The viral clip is part of a documentary on the Taliban that was shot earlier this year.
During its previous reign over the once-progressive Afghanistan, women were forced into wearing burqas and robbed of their rights.
Girls' schools were closed down and women were forced to leave their jobs.
On Tuesday, the Taliban leadership said women would have freedom under Islamic or Sharia law.
It indicated the group would not make the burqa mandatory in the country, but would require women to wear a hijab which does not obscure the face.
