The Taliban And Its Impact On Afghanistan

The Taliban is an insurgency group currently active in Afghanistan. As far as we know, they have been active since 2001 to the present. The word Taliban comes from the word “Talib” meaning “student” or “religious student”. Their main language spoken is Pashto, one of the native dialects of Afghanistan. They are a primarily Islamic/ Muslim extremist group but hold a few other religious ideologies such as: Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, and Turkmen. They were founded by Mohammed Omar, often called the “commander of the faithful“, who was in power from 1994-2013. His successor, Hibatullah Akhundzada, took over in 2016 and still holds power today.

After the U.S. invaded in October of 2001 following the attack on September 11th, the Taliban leadership fled to Pakistan. In late 2004, the former hidden leader Mohammed Omar proclaimed an insurgency against “America and its puppets” to regain the sovereignty of their country. Currently, the Musial district, a Helmand province, is known as the heartland of the Taliban and often known as the “Taliban’s Kabul”. About three years ago, a Taliban spokesman reported that he would keep fighting to free Afghanistan of “American invaders” in response to a hostile speech said by President Trump. Today, the Taliban remains by far the largest single group fighting against the Afghan government and forge in troops. However, they are not alone. Many times they are seen acting with another insurgency group al-Qaeda as well as other state and non-state groups. Today, there are many foreign powers who have teamed up in an effort to combat the Taliban. For example, the United States, the United Kingdom, NATO, ISAF, as well as some local groups that are against the Taliban.

The Taliban have completely taken over the educational and healthcare system in their occupied territories. They have limited the content in which the children are taught. Normally, the boys are the only ones who are allowed to go to school. While they are taught some subjects that are necessary, they put their main focus in educating the boys in the Islamic/Muslim religion and ideals. The purpose of this is to condition the young boys to hate the west and to fully embrace their religion and the Taliban’s perspectives and ideals. The women were effectively banned from all forms of education. When the Taliban came into power, they made the education of girls illegal. In addition to the educational system, they also greatly influenced the healthcare system. The local hospitals are run by the Taliban and funded by the national government. They lack the basic facilities and tools necessary for a standard hospital. There are no female doctors, to child specialists, most of the qualified staff quit due to long spouts of no payment and often times the Taliban take the medicine for themselves leaving very little for the entire hospital.

The Taliban also projects many different forms of propaganda to their people. They often preach that the government workers are slave infidels and that the entire government is faithless to Allah and are allies with the Americans. They tell their followers that the people who get killed for the will of Allah are very happy because they are happy for what the lord had given them. They also tell their followers that sacrificing your life in the name of God is the greatest honor. In an effort to appeal to the people, they tell them that they make communities safer, because of their there is no crime within their in control. The Taliban is constantly trying to win the hearts of the public to recruit people or to win people to their perspective or side. In an effort to instil their law to the people, they created a few laws that the people are to abide by such as the men have to grow out their beards and the women have to always be accompanied by a male relative at all times in the public. There are also many freedoms that we Americans find common that are actually banned under Taliban rule. For example, the people are not allowed to have kites, mobile phones, musical instruments, watching films and so on.

The Taliban have greatly influenced the daily life of the people in Afghanistan. In their rule they made many rules and regulations that changed the way of life for people. They see themselves as carrying out the will of Allah with their actions, which they try to preach to others to recruit them. They are groups that are still active today with ties to other dangerous groups who also despise the West, specifically America. The war in Afghanistan has been going on for many years. There has not been a true solution or point where the war has stopped. Their justification for all their actions is that they are doing what Allah wants them to do, which can be seen in other eyes as terrorism or extreme.