The world mutely watched the Taliban regime in Afghanistan celebrate their 'third anniversary' last week with a show of force. One, however, must not forget the depravity and moral degeneration of this mockery of an 'interim government'.
Since its return to power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban rule has sustained with the implementation of numerous harsh regulations and proclamations on the common people of this war-ravaged country. Imposing severe human rights abuses, the Taliban regime has executed not only an anti-woman but also an anti-press, anti-free speech, anti-public education, and anti-health care providers, scheme. Religious and ethnic minorities of the country are also under relentless danger. The Taliban regime persecutes rebels and has forced the closure of civil society organisations.
The latest, "2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Afghanistan", published by the United States (US) Department of State observed:
"UNAMA documented at least 800 human rights violations against former government officials and members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). At least 43 instances of court-ordered corporal punishment ordered by Taliban-appointed judges. Within the 43 instances, 58 women, 274 men and two male children were lashed for a variety of offences, including Zina (defined as sexual intercourse outside of marriage), running away from home, theft, homosexuality, consuming alcohol, fraud, and drug trafficking. In general, punishments consisted of 30-39 lashes per convicted person. As many as 100 lashes were reportedly given in some cases. 12,000 journalists in the country had lost their jobs since August 2021, including more than 80% of women journalists who forcibly had to leave their jobs."
As expected, soon after taking over Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US forces in 2021, the Afghan Taliban announced that they would re-examine subjects which will be taught in various educational institutions, to guarantee alignment with the Taliban's interpretation of Sharia, while also vowing not to change the curriculum of madrasas (Islamic seminaries). Taliban's specific proposals included removing images of all living beings, propagating jihad, disapproval of women's education and freedom, and proliferating the Taliban's narrative of history that focuses on the Islamic world and largely ignores non-Islamic history. The Taliban have reinvested in religious education. In their first two years in power, 5,618 madrasas were opened, up from the 1,212 which existed under the previous US-backed Afghan government. Sadly, according to the United Nations, the Taliban has 'deliberately deprived' at least 1.4 million girls of their right to an education for the past three years.
The Taliban 2.0 is more prepared, discerning and crafty. It has overpowered media freedoms even while it exploits the media to its advantage
The Taliban rule also has had a dreadful impact on the country's health sector. To say the healthcare system in Afghanistan has turned into a severe catastrophe under Taliban rule would not be a mischaracterisation of the situation. Citizens' access to healthcare services has radically diminished, and most Afghan citizens, due to increasing poverty and persistent unemployment, cannot visit healthcare centres. As a result, diseases and mental anguish have spread. A report titled, "Afghanistan: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict 2023", published on June 24, 2024, elucidated a grim picture of the healthcare sector under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. According to the report, incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care continue to take place in Afghanistan, coming under attack at least 109 times in 2023. Also, more than 80% of the reported 109 cases were attributed to the Afghan government, police, and intelligence forces, all of which are under the effective control of the Taliban. Health worker arrests or detentions by these forces nearly doubled in 2023, while kidnappings decreased by 75% and killings more than halved.
Moreover, there is also a financial discrepancy regarding the health and medical sector in Afghanistan. The Taliban's budget for 2023-24 was $3.548 billion, and it provides a glance into the regime's priorities. The budget for the Ministry of Defence was $616.80 million, or around 17.38% of the total budget. On the other hand, the Ministry of Public Health was allocated just $80 million, or just 2.25% of the total budget.
The second term of the Taliban is far more treacherous than its former avatar (1996-2001). Contrasting the 1990s, when the Taliban militia used to break televisions, radio sets, music cassettes, and dish antennas, the Taliban 2.0 is more prepared, discerning and crafty. It has overpowered media freedoms even while it exploits the media to its advantage. The regime has appointed its 'own people' at different managerial and executive levels in these media, including in the national radio and television channels, over 30 provincial radio and television stations, five government newspapers, and radio and television affiliated with members of the former House of Representatives. These media now primarily function as propaganda machines, spreading the Taliban's political and religious narrative. Mainstream journalists are regularly detained, media houses are shut down, and the Taliban impose harsher restrictions on female reporters. An August 2023, Reporters Without Borders report, titled Two Years of Journalism under the Taliban Regime, stated that over 80% of Afghanistan's female journalists had been compelled to cease working since August 15, 2021. It also said that of the 12,000 journalists, including males and females, working in 2021, more than two-thirds have left the profession.
Though discreetly, women are maintaining secret schools, boutiques, salons, shops, etc, but all these 'acts of defiance' have been declared illegal by the Taliban
The religious and ethnic Hazara minorities of Afghanistan suffer from a double-edged sword of violence, first due to their ethnic differences with the majority Pashtun tribes, and second, since they follow the Shia sect of Islam in a Sunni majority country. Apart from physical violence, Hazaras are regularly evicted from their localities. The Taliban established a "Commission for Prevention of Usurpation and Recovery of Government Lands" in 2023. In various provinces, this Commission registers government lands under the name of "Emirate Lands". Earlier, in October 2021, the Taliban forcibly expelled hundreds of Hazara families from the provinces of Helmand, Uruzgan, Balkh, Daikundi, and Kandahar. On a more direct mode, after their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban soon recommenced their anti-Hazara campaign. On August 18, 2021, the Taliban blew up the statue of Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari in the historic Bamiyan province. Mazari had been killed by the Taliban in 1995, during their first regime (the Taliban went on to destroy the historic Buddha statues in Bamiyan years later). There have also been attacks on Hazara schools. On September 30, 2022, an attack at the Kaaj Education Centre in Dasht-e-Barchi killed more than 60 Hazara students.
The female population of Afghanistan comprising 49.5% of the total, is experiencing torture, subjugation and humiliation at every possible level. Their personal freedom and choices, their very presence or right to life, are at the mercy of the Taliban regime. In September 2021, the Taliban replaced the Ministry of Women's Affairs with the notorious Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was disbanded in 2001. The Taliban regime is systematically excluding women from the public sphere and has now started subduing them in private spaces as well. In his Eid-ul-Adha message of June 25, 2023, Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada declared, "necessary steps have been taken for the betterment of women as half of society in order to provide them with a comfortable and prosperous life according to the Islamic Sharia". Though discreetly, women are maintaining secret schools, boutiques, salons, shops, etc, but all these 'acts of defiance' have been declared illegal by the Taliban. In reality, so far, the Taliban has issued at least 70 decrees and directives that directly target the independence, liberties, and daily lives of women and girls in the country. It has been projected that the Afghan economy will lose around $9.6 billion, equivalent to two-thirds of Afghanistan's gross domestic product today, by 2066 if the suspension of women's access to higher education remains in place.
The Taliban want to create a world where women are unseen, where no opposition is tolerated, and where religious beliefs substitute academic analysis. The Taliban regime will not stop; it will keep on pushing the Afghan society and people into the prison of darkness, cruelty, and poverty. The fixation with founding their interpretation of Sharia-based law and a strict society has totally undone the little progress made by Afghanistan over the two decades preceding the Taliban's return to power. In its present incarnation, the Taliban is more lethal and more systematised to impose its will at the cost of common Afghans.