Their history and their resurgence
by Laura Hayes, Borgna Brunner, and Beth Rowen
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For more on the Taliban see Timeline: The Taliban.
The Taliban ("Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement") ruled
Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001. They came to power during
Afghanistan's long civil war. Although they managed to hold 90% of the
country's territory, their policies—including their treatment of
women and support of terrorists—ostracized them from the world
community. The Taliban was ousted from power in December 2001 by the
U.S. military and Afghani opposition forces in response to the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the
U.S.
The Taliban's rise to power
The Taliban are one of the
mujahideen ("holy warriors" or "freedom fighters") groups that formed during the war against the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-89). After the withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Soviet-backed government lost ground to the
mujahideen. In 1992, Kabul was captured and an alliance of
mujahideen set up a new government with
Burhanuddin Rabbani
as interim president. However, the various factions were unable to
cooperate and fell to fighting each other. Afghanistan was reduced to a
collection of territories held by competing warlords.
Groups of
taliban ("religious students") were loosely
organized on a regional basis during the occupation and civil war.
Although they represented a potentially huge force, they didn't emerge
as a united entity until the
taliban of
Kandahar made their move in 1994. In late 1994, a group of well-trained
taliban
were chosen by Pakistan to protect a convoy trying to open a trade
route from Pakistan to Central Asia. They proved an able force, fighting
off rival
mujahideen and warlords. The
taliban then went
on to take the city of Kandahar, beginning a surprising advance that
ended with their capture of Kabul in September 1996.
Afghanistan under the Taliban
The Taliban's popularity with the Afghan people surprised the
country's other warring factions. Many Afghans, weary of conflict and
anarchy, were relieved to see corrupt and often brutal warlords replaced
by the devout Taliban, who had some success in eliminating corruption,
restoring peace, and allowing commerce to resume.
The Taliban, under the direction of
Mullah Muhammad Omar, brought about this order through the institution of a very strict interpretation of
Sharia,
or Islamic law. Public executions and punishments (such as floggings)
became regular events at Afghan soccer stadiums. Frivolous activities,
like kite-flying, were outlawed. In order to root out "non-Islamic"
influence, television, music, and the Internet were banned. Men were
required to wear beards, and subjected to beatings if they didn't.
Most shocking to the West was the Taliban's treatment of women. When
the Taliban took Kabul, they immediately forbade girls to go to school.
Moreover, women were barred from working outside the home, precipitating
a crisis in healthcare and education. Women were also prohibited from
leaving their home without a male relative—those that did so risked
being beaten, even shot, by officers of the "ministry for the protection
of virtue and prevention of vice." A woman caught wearing fingernail
polish may have had her fingertips chopped off. All this, according to
the Taliban, was to safeguard women and their honor.
In contrast to their strict beliefs, the Taliban profited from
smuggling operations (primarily electronics) and opium cultivation.
Eventually they bowed to international pressure and cracked down on
cultivation and by July 2000 were able to claim that they had cut world
opium production by two-thirds. Unfortunately, the crackdown on opium
also abruptly deprived thousands of Afghans of their only source of
income.
Although the Taliban managed to re-unite most of Afghanistan, they
were unable to end the civil war. Nor did they improve the conditions in
cities, where access to food, clean water, and employment actually
declined during their rule. A continuing drought and a very harsh winter
(2000–2001) brought famine and increased the flow of refugees to
Pakistan.
Cultural and religious basis for the Taliban
In the context of Afghan history, the rise of the Taliban—though not their extremism—is unsurprising.
Afghanistan is a devoutly Muslim nation—90% of its population are
Sunni Muslims (other Afghan Muslims are
Sufis or
Shiites). Religious schools were established in Afghanistan after Islam arrived in the seventh century and
taliban
became an important part of the social fabric: running schools,
mosques, shrines, and various religious and social services, and serving
as
mujahideen when necessary.
Most of the Taliban's leaders were educated in Pakistan, in refugee
camps where they had fled with millions of other Afghans after the
Soviet invasion. Pakistan's
Jami'at-e 'Ulema-e Islam (JUI)
political party provided welfare services, education, and military
training for refugees in many of these camps. They also established
religious schools in the Deobandi tradition.
The Deobandi tradition originated as a reform movement in British
India with the aim of rejuvenating Islamic society in a colonial state,
and remained prevalent in Pakistan after the
partition from India. The Deobandi schools in Afghan refugee camps, however, are often run by inexperienced and semi-literate
mullahs.
In addition, funds and scholarships provided by Saudi Arabia during the
occupation brought the schools' curricula closer to the conservative
Wahhabi tradition. Ties between the Taliban and these schools remain strong: when the Taliban were defeated in the city of
Mazar-i-Sharif
one of Pakistan's largest religious schools shut down for a month and
sent thousands of students to Afghanistan as reinforcements.
While the Taliban present themselves as a reform movement, they have
been criticized by Islamic scholars as being poorly educated in Islamic
law and history—even in Islamic radicalism, which has a long history of
scholarly writing and debate. Their implementation of Islamic law seems
to be a combination of Wahhabi orthodoxy (i.e., banning of musical
instruments) and tribal custom (i.e., the all-covering
birka made mandatory for all Afghan women).
The opposition
Afghanistan's civil war continued until the end of 2001. The
Taliban's strongest opposition came from the Northern Alliance, which
held the Northeast corner of the country (about 10% of Afghanistan). The
Northern Alliance comprises numerous anti-Taliban factions and is
nominally led by exiled president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Generally, the factions break down according to
religion and ethnicity. While the Taliban is made up mostly Sunni Muslim Pashtuns (also referred to as
Pathans),
the Northern Alliance includes Tajiks, Hazara, Uzbeks, and Turkmen. The
Hazara, and some other smaller ethnic groups, are Shiites. The
Ismaili community, which suffered in Taliban-occupied areas, also supports the Northern Alliance.
Although the Taliban called for a negotiated end to the civil war,
they continued to mount new offensives. In September 2001, the leader of
the Northern Alliance, Commander
Ahmad Shah Massoud, died from wounds suffered in a suicide bombing, allegedly carried out by
al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization with close ties to the Taliban.
The Taliban against the world
The Taliban regime faced international scrutiny and condemnation for its policies. Only
Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan, and the
United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government. After the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut diplomatic ties with the Taliban.
The Taliban allowed terrorist organizations to run training camps in
their territory and, from 1994 to at least 2001, provided refuge for
Osama bin Laden
and his al-Qaeda organization. The relationship between the Taliban and
bin Laden was close, even familial—bin Laden fought with the
mujahideen,
has financed the Taliban, and one of his daughters is reportedly
married to Mullah Muhammad Omar. The United Nations Security Council
passed two resolutions, UNSCR 1267 (1999) and 1333 (2000), demanding
that the Taliban cease their support for terrorism and hand over bin
Laden for trial.
The Taliban recognized the need for international ties but wavered
between cooperation—they claimed to have drastically cut opium
production in July 2000—and defiance—they pointedly ignored
international pleas not to destroy the 2000-year-old Buddhist statues of
Bamian. However, they made no effort to curb terrorist activity within Afghanistan, a policy that ultimately led to their undoing.
Even after their ouster, the Taliban's brand of Islamist radicalism
threatens to destabilize other countries in the region including Iran,
China, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. The Taliban's relationship with
Pakistan is especially problematic. A high percentage of the Taliban are
ethnic Pashtuns; Pashtuns are a sizable minority in Pakistan and
dominate the Pakistani military. Public support for the Taliban runs
very high in the Pashtun
North-West Frontier province
where pro-Taliban groups have held uprisings and sought to emulate
Taliban practices by performing public executions and oppressing women.
The end of the Taliban?
In September, 2001, the U.S. placed significant pressure on the
Taliban to turn over bin Laden and al-Qaeda in response to the September
11, 2001, terrorist attacks. On October 7, after the Taliban refused to
give up bin Laden, the U.S. began bombing Taliban military sites and
aiding the Northern Alliance. By November 21, the Taliban had lost Kabul
and by December 9 had been completely routed.
An interim government was agreed upon by representatives of
Afghanistan's various factions during talks held in Bonn, Germany. On
December 22, 2001,
Hamid Karzai,
an Afghan tribal leader, was sworn in as interim chairman of the
government. Karzai initially supported the Taliban and is respected by
many former Taliban leaders. In January 2002, the Taliban recognized the
interim government.
The Taliban's Resurgence
While many of the Taliban's most radical leaders and supporters were
killed, taken prisoner, or fled the country, many former Taliban
returned to their homes and continue to work for the Taliban's goals.
The Taliban leader,
Mullah Omar, has continued to elude capture.
In 2003, after the United States shifted its military efforts to
fighting the war in Iraq, attacks on American-led forces intensified as
the Taliban and al-Qaeda began to regroup. President Hamid Karzai's hold
on power remained tenuous, as entrenched warlords continued to exert
regional control. Remarkably, however, Afghanistan's first democratic
presidential elections in Oct. 2004 were a success. Ten million Afghans,
more than a third of the country, registered to vote, including more
than 40% of eligible women. Despite the Taliban's threats to kill anyone
who participated, the polls were reasonably peaceful and the elections
deemed fair by international observers.
In 2005 and 2006, the Taliban continued its resurgence, and 2006
became the deadliest year of fighting since the 2001 war. Throughout the
spring, Taliban militants infiltrated southern Afghanistan, terrorizing
villagers and attacking Afghan and U.S. troops. In May and June,
Operation Mount Thrust was launched, deploying more than 10,000 Afghan
and coalition forces to the south. In Aug. 2006, NATO troops took over
military operations in southern Afghanistan from the U.S.-led coalition,
which put a total of 21,000 American troops and 19,000 NATO troops on
the ground. In September NATO launched the largest attack in its 57-year
history. About 2,000—the vast majority Taliban fighters—were killed in
military operations during the year.
In September 2006, Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf signed a
controversial peace agreement with seven militant groups, who call
themselves the "Pakistan Taliban." Pakistan's army agreed to withdraw
from the area and allow the Taliban to govern themselves, as long as
they promise no incursions into Afghanistan or against Pakistani troops.
Critics say the deal handed terrorists a secure base of operations;
supporters counter that a military solution against the Taliban is
futile and will only spawn more militants, contending that containment
is the only practical policy.
The Taliban rescinded the cease-fire in July 2007 after clashes
between government troops and radical Islamist clerics and students at
Islamabad's Red Mosque. After the initial violence, the military laid
seige to the mosque, which held nearly 2,000 students. Several students
escaped or surrendered to officials. The mosque's senior cleric, Maulana
Abdul Aziz was caught by officials when attempting to escape. After
negotiations between government officials and mosque leaders failed,
troops stormed the compound and killed Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who took over
as chief of the mosque after the capture of Aziz, his brother. More
than 80 people died in the violence. Fighting in remote tribal areas
intensified after the raid.
In 2008, after more than five years as Afghanistan's leader,
President Hamid Karzai still has only marginal control over large swaths
of his country, which is rife with warlords, militants, and drug
smugglers. The Taliban now funds its insurgency through the drug trade.
An August 2007 report by the United Nations found that Afghanistan's
opium production doubled in two years and that the country supplies 93%
of the world's heroin.
In February 2008, U.S. Secretary of State Robert Gates warned NATO
members that the threat of an al-Qaeda attack on their soil is real and
that they must commit more troops to stabilize Afghanistan and counter
the growing power of both al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
In August 2008, the Pakistani military launched a three-week-long
cross-border air assault into Afghanistan's Bajaur region, which
resulted in more than 400 Taliban casualties. The continuous airstrikes
forced many al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to retreat from towns
formally under their control. However, the Pakistani government declared
a cease-fire in the Bajaur region for the month of September in
observance of
Ramadan, raising fears that the Taliban will use the opportunity to regroup.
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, was killed
by a C.I.A. drone strike in August 2009 in South Waziristan, a remote
region of the country. He was blamed for the assassination of Benazir
Bhutto, the terrorist attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, and
dozens of other suicide bombings. Despite his death, the Taliban
continued its resurgence in both Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009. In
fact, the Taliban was blamed for the violence that led up to August's
presidential election in Afghanistan, an apparent attempt to disrupt the
elections and further destabilize the country.
The Taliban continued its attacks on government targets and U.S. and
NATO troops into 2013. As the U.S. was preparing to withdraw all combat
troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the Pentagon released a
report in late 2012 that said, "The Taliban-led insurgency remains
adaptive and determined, and retains the capability to emplace
substantial numbers of I.E.D.s and to conduct isolated high-profile
attacks."
In June 2013, The Taliban opened an office in Doha, Qatar, and its
representatives held a press conference with an international media
contingent. The U.S. said it would begin long-delayed peace talks with
the group. Afghanistan was expected to do the same, but instead said it
would not engage in any dialogue with the Taliban, saying such
discussions lent the militants credibility
Read more:
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