O Taliban is a Sunni fundamentalist organization that emerged in the Afghanistan, in 1994, during the Afghan Civil War. This group originated within the mujahidin, fundamentalist rebel groups that were financed by the United States in the fight against the Soviets during the 1979 Afghan War. The Taliban ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, committing numerous human rights violations.
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Taliban Summary
The Taliban emerged in 1994, during the Afghan Civil War.
It was formed by students who attended Afghan religious schools and were led by Mohammad Omar.
The fundamentalist group ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, committing numerous human rights violations.
He was ousted from power by the United States for harboring al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
It regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, with the withdrawal of US troops from the Asian country.
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What is the Taliban?
The Taliban is a Sunni-oriented fundamentalist Islamic organization
that emerged in Afghanistan in 1994. It originated within the Pashto population, the majority ethnic group that inhabits Afghanistan, a country located in Central Asia. Specifically, the Taliban's origins are related to young Pashtos who attended Afghan religious schools — the madrasas.Including, the term “Taliban” in the Pashto language means “students”, since it was these students linked to religious schools and who had an extremely conservative view of Islam that gave rise to the fundamentalist organization. The group's objective was to govern Afghanistan, guaranteeing peace and security to the country, in addition to enforcing Islamic Law, known as Sharia.
Accessalso: Islamic State — terrorist group that consolidated in 2014
How did the Taliban come about?
The rise of the Taliban is directly related to the 1979 Afghanistan War, also known as the Afghan-Soviet War. This war was the result of the political crisis that Afghanistan experienced in the 1970s and the rise of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) to power in the country in 1978.
1979 Afghanistan War
In 1973, the Afghan monarchy was overthrown in a coup that began the republican period in Afghanistan, with power in the country being handed over to the coup leader, Mohammad Daoud. In the 1970s, Afghan society was divided between a secular group, which intended to reform and modernize the country, and traditional groups, linked to the Islam and that they did not want modernizing reforms.
Mohammad Daoud sought to sustain himself in power through diplomatic alliances with Saudi Arabia and Iran, which he did not like. to the socialists, a group that was getting stronger in Afghanistan and that wanted to carry out secular and modernizing reforms in Afghanistan. parents. These socialists met in the PDPA and had great support from the Soviets.
The strengthening of the PDPA made this group organize a coup, with the support of the military and the Soviets. This coup took place in 1978 and became known as the Saur Revolution.. The country's ruling socialists formed the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and began an extensive program of modernizing reforms.
Historian Filipe Figueiredo listed some of the reforms promoted by the socialists in Afghanistan|1|:
end of religious laws;
mandatory shaving;
abolition of the Muslim veil;
limitation on the functioning of mosques;
purge against the authorities linked to the traditional tribes of Afghanistan.
In practice, the PDPA government sought to secularize Afghan society, fighting the country's Islam and tribal organization, in addition to promoting profound reforms in agriculture and society's customs, as in the issue of women's rights, since the PDPA announced gender equality in the country. To drive these changes, a more authoritarian stance was taken and opponents were persecuted.
The new government and the reforms carried out were displeasing to traditional and conservative groups linked to the country's tribes and who were Muslims. This led to the formation of armed militias, which became known as "mujahidin", something like “holy warrior”, one who fights in defense of the Islamic faith. In this scenario, the Afghan government came to control the country's large cities, while the mujahideen had great control in the interior and rural areas of Afghanistan.
The PDPA went on to deal with a series of uprisings in Afghanistan and then decided to ask the Soviet Union for help in order to control the situation. The Soviet government, then controlled by Leonid Brezhnev, decided to intervene in the Afghan situation, as it feared losing an important ally in Central Asia. So, in December 1979, Soviet troops invaded the country.
There began a struggle that lasted 10 years and that put the Afghan government and the Soviet government in the fight against the Afghan rebels, the mujahidin. It turns out that this war was not just a small regionalized conflict involving the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. THE Cold War gave another face to this clash.
The Cold War context made the U.S identified in the events in Afghanistan a unique opportunity to weaken the Soviet Union and bleed the economy of that country. O government Jimmy's Carter began to secretly intervene in this scenario and mobilized the CIA (US intelligence) so that the Afghan rebels could receive US support.
The historian V. G. Kiernan reports that the objective of the US government was to force a Soviet intervention in the Afghanistan and thus weaken the Soviet Union through the huge expenditures that a possible war would bring|2|. Thus, in July 1979, the United States was already allied with the mujahidin.
With the beginning of the war, the US support for mujahideen has increased considerably. the government of Ronald Reagan it invested billions of dollars in the training and arming of Afghan rebel troops, and US intelligence met with extremely reactionary groups to fight the Soviets.
During the conflict, the mujahidin also had the support of the Pakistan and from Saudi Arabia. Pakistani intelligence was also active in training the Afghan rebels. The result of such support for the mujahidin was that they forced the Soviet withdrawal from Afghan territory in 1989.
The Soviet withdrawal did not end the war, which continued between 1989 and 1992, with the PDPA fighting the mujahideen for control of Afghanistan. You United States followedram supporting the afghan rebels with the aim of overthrowing the Afghan power socialists. In 1992, the PDPA fell and the Islamic State of Afghanistan emerged.
Afghan Civil War
It turns out that the defeat of the PDPA did not end the struggle, as the mujahidin began to dispute among themselves for the power of Afghanistan. Thus, a civil war was consolidated, which lasted from 1992 to 1996 and which had, on the one hand, moderate mujahideen and, on the other, extremist mujahideen. It was during this conflict that the Taliban emerged. It is considered that the date of emergence of this fundamentalist organization was the year 1994.
The first Taliban leader was Mujahidin Mullah Mohammad Omar. This leader was dissatisfied with the non-imposition of Islamic Law and decided to seize power in the country to enforce it. The Taliban had great support from students of religious schools, the madrasas, in addition to the support of Pakistan. In this way, he quickly advanced into Afghan territory.
Accessalso: Syrian Civil War — a conflict that spans more than ten years
Taliban in power
Between 1995 and 1996, the Taliban conquered much of the territory of Afghanistan, including the capital, Kabul. By gaining power in Afghanistan, imposed an extremely authoritarian regime, which has a long list of violations of Human rights. The group started to carry out public executions, amputations and floggings, in addition to forcing women to wear the burka.
Furthermore, started to chase all kinds of western influence and thus cinema, music and other arts were banned from the country. It also banned women from attending school and promoted the destruction of the country's historical and cultural heritage, as was the case with the destruction of Buddha statues. It also persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Shiites.
This first moment in which the Taliban was in power extended from 1996 to 2001. Only three nations in the world recognized the Taliban government as legitimate: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. During this period, Afghanistan became known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The only major resistance the Taliban had in Afghanistan was the militia known as the Northern Alliance, led by Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rahid Dostum. This group had fought the Taliban during the Afghan Civil War and had settled in the north of the country, creating a small focus of resistance there.
fall of the taliban
While the Taliban controlled almost all of Afghan territory, an important mujahidin had established itself there: osama bin laden. The Saudi had fought the Soviets in the 1979 Afghan War and had joined the jihad (“holy war”) with US support. He became a fundamentalist and was one of the founders of al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda was the terrorist organization responsible for organizing the September 11, 2001 attacks, which caused the death of nearly three thousand people in the United States. O Taliban became US target because their government in Afghanistan was harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
The Taliban refused to comply with the US government's requests and an international military response was initiated against Afghanistan as early as 2001. THE Afghanistan invasion by US, Canadian, British troops, among others, took place in October. By December, US troops were already controlling much of the country.
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Taliban resurgence
After a period of decay, the Taliban regrouped its forces and became a permanent threat in Afghanistan, although it did not control the country. Over time, the Taliban's influence grew in the interior of the country and reached regions in the interior of Pakistan. What prevented the effective return of the Taliban was the US military presence in Afghan territory.
The Taliban came to control some regions in the interior of Afghanistan, but the capital, Kabul, remained under the control of the Afghan government and US troops. However, the US government started during the Donald Trump's government, to a process of leaving the country and this exit was carried out in a hurried manner in the government of Joe Biden.
It was hoped that the Taliban would not be able to defeat the Afghan government quickly and that a struggle would spread across the country. There were even US government peace talks with the Taliban in 2020, but they didn't move forward. The US departure coincided with the Taliban's greatest strength since 2001.
The effective departure of US troops caused the Taliban to start a military campaign by Afghanistan, which led to the conquest of almost the entire territory of the country in about two weeks. O Afghan army was no match for the Taliban, and the capital, Kabul, fell in less than 24 hours. Afghan government officials fled the country, and the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan after 20 years. To learn more about the current situation, read: Taliban and the resumption of power in Afghanistan.
Grades
|1| INVISIBLE FRONTIERS OF SOCCER #84: Afghanistan. Presentation by Matias Pinto and Filipe Figueiredo. Verbal Chess. Podcast, 2019. To access, click on here.
|2| KIERNAN, Victor G. United States: the new imperialism. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2009, p. 416.
Image credits:
[1] Dmitriyk21 and Shutterstock
[2] mark reinstein and Shutterstock
by Daniel Neves
History teacher
