Nearly 23 years after first being deposed, the Taliban celebrated three years of regaining power over Afghanistan on Wednesday, three years after the United States pulled out its troops.
The Taliban originally formed in the wake of the Afghan War in Soviet-supported Afghanistan in 1994, growing in power as they supplanted the existing government and brought some measure of order to a country suffering from the effects of a disorganized government. Soon enough, the faction skyrocketed in popularity, due to both the governmental changes and order it brought about and the traditional religious beliefs its members held.
As the Taliban began to take control of the Afghan government, religion turned into regulation, as the group imposed strict laws based in the Quran and religious doctrine, leading to a great regression in the rights of women and girls.
Women could no longer work, go to school, and lost many of their rights. Protections for rape, domestic violence, and abuse were effectively destroyed and women could be stoned to death for adultery or so-called moral crimes. Furthermore, women were required to wear a burqa and be accompanied by a male family member/chaperone whenever they left the house.
Soon after, the Taliban began giving asylum to various terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, at the behest of many nations. Upon the Taliban’s refusal to extradite Osama bin Laden and the rest of al-Qaeda to the United States after the events of September 11, 2001, the United States and its allies began Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, bombing Afghanistan and providing support to the Northern Alliance, an alliance between many anti-Taliban groups.
Finally, in December of 2001, the Taliban fell and many of its members fled, remaining in hiding in the mountains. Slowly but surely, the Taliban began to recruit, exploiting the growing discontent of thousands of Afghans towards the corruption in their new government and the US, and took action once more with suicide bombings among other destructive actions, drawing inspiration from the actions of rebels during the Iraq War.
As the violence and destruction continued to grow, then-President Barack Obama deployed increased numbers of American troops to the region to maintain peace and curb the fighting in 2009.
Nearly 12 years later, as public outcry over the continued presence of American troops in the region skyrocketed, current President Joe Biden approved the previous administration’s plan to finish withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, creating a new, postponed deadline for removal of troops of August 31. Just as American troops pulled out of the nation, the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan and reasserted their power over the region.
Nearly three years after the withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power, the public eye has largely stayed out of Afghanistan, focusing more on the Ukraine-Russia conflict or the events in Israel and Palestine. Yet, the Taliban still maintains control over Afghanistan and women’s rights are once again steadily deteriorating… only this time global attention to these loss of rights has also lessened.
Despite the fact that the situation with the Taliban has been a problem raging for almost three decades, the travesties and loss of basic human rights befalling the people of Afghanistan should not be ignored. And while the newer issues concerning the rest of the world — like the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the disputes in Israel and Palestine — are important, the older issues that have been plaguing the world, the issues that have been impacting people for decades, are equally as important… if not more. So the next time you consider the problems impacting our globe, be sure to look past the headlines and hashtags and see the problems and conflicts that have been overlooked and ignored for much too long.
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