Explained: Who are the Taliban?

Most of us have seen images of desperate Afghans trying to flee their country through August and September this year. In this context, we have heard the term ‘Taliban’ and seen images of men carrying guns in Afghanistan. The Taliban are at the core of decades of war in Afghanistan and on August 15, captured their own country by force for the second time in history.  

The Taliban is a religious and political group that has been in power in Afghanistan since the mid-1990s. The word ‘Taliban’ means ‘student’ in Pashto, which is an official language of Afghanistan. When this group formed, most of the members were seen to be former students of Islamic religious schools, thus the name. The Taliban believe in enforcing strict Islamic law and supporting terrorism in the name of holy warfare. Though the group wants religious laws, many Muslims have pointed out that they interpret these laws in their own narrow way. So they follow their own version of Islamic law, rather than just the law books. They believe in severely limiting human rights, especially of women. When the Taliban was in power, TV shows, music and movies were banned in Afghanistan and women were not allowed to go out unless it was necessary, and they had to cover themselves. Those who broke laws are harshly and publicly punished or executed.   

How did the Taliban rise to power the first time?  
Afghanistan was ruled by a communist government till 1978 and was not an extremist nation. From 1978 to 1992, Muslim extremist Afghans fought a civil war against the government. The communist regime fell in 1992. In 1996, Taliban captured the capital, Kabul, and started ruling the country. However, when a terrorist group called the al-Qaeda attacked USA in 2001, Taliban were attacked by USA for supporting the al-Qaeda. Thousands of US troops occupied Afghanistan after that.   

How did the Taliban come to power again in 2021? 
USA declared last year that they would be pulling out by September 2021, 20 years after USA was attacked. The Taliban started taking over in early May, and on August 15, they seized power again. Afghanistan’s President has fled and the country is entirely in Taliban control.