Afghanistan: What You Need to Know

Sep 1, 2021 | In the News, Regular Feature

Written by Yocheved Coetzee

Before even beginning to comprehend the current crisis in Afghanistan, there are some basic facts we have to understand. Afghanistan is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central and South Asia with a population of approximately 31 million people. One of the world’s poorest countries, Afghanistan’s civilian population is ill-equipped to survive (or escape) the current situation.

A South African singer, Coenie de Villiers, once said, “When the big elephants fight, the small blades of grass get hurt.” Afghanistan’s “small blades of grass” have been trampled underfoot by many fighting elephants for a very long time. The country has been in constant conflict for almost 40 years, with NATO and American troops actively fighting the Taliban and other terrorist groups, both inside the country and out, for the past 20 years. 

Who are the Taliban?

Considered a political-religious movement, the Taliban are actually not categorized as a terrorist organization by the United States government, in spite of their strict adherence to a severe form of Islamic law and their use of extreme violence to both enforce that law and to gain power.

The Taliban appeared on the scene in the early 1990s in an area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, and began to gain power under the promise of bringing peace to the area, as well as ensuring adherence to their extreme version of Sharia. By 1998 the Taliban were in control of approximately 90% of Afghanistan.

 

Why did the US get involved in Afghanistan in 2001?

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by Al-Qaeda, the Taliban were implicated as playing a supporting role in the event and so when US-led forces invaded Afghanistan, the Taliban were on the hit-list. In time, it appeared that the regime had indeed collapsed. But Taliban leaders had taken refuge in Pakistan, where they rebuilt their power-base, waiting for the right time to make a move.

In 2020, with the Taliban continuing to gain power and attacks against US and NATO forces on the rise, a peace deal was struck between the US and Taliban forces with a subsequent decision by the US government to withdraw forces from the country by Sept 11, 2021 – 20 years after they entered Afghanistan. This, despite grave concerns expressed by Afghan officials over the government’s vulnerability to the Taliban without international support. 

Apparently, their concerns were not unfounded. The Taliban swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days, reaching the gates of Kabul by August 15, 2021.

What has changed?

During the past 20 years, the people of Afghanistan have enjoyed a level of freedom they’d never seen before. A whole generation of women has been able to attain higher education, work in offices, travel freely across the country, and participate in many aspects of civilian life.

And, as part of their recent drive to gain power, the Taliban appear to have shifted their tactics from attacking strategic military targets to a wave of targeted assassinations against Afghan civilians and foreign nationals. 

According to an article by Zahra Nader and Amie Ferris Rotman, published in Time Magazine on August 20 of this year, Taliban fighters have turned women away from their workplaces and barred them from entering universities.

In addition, there are reports of reprisal killings and forced marriages, especially of young girls. In Kabul, several Afghan female journalists said members of the Taliban were going from door to door, making lists of women who worked in the media and the government. Women’s movements have been severely restricted, with public floggings of women who dared to go out in public without a male escort, witnesses say.

Women and girls are not the only ones in danger. A Unicef report from 2017 noted that Afghan girls faced early marriage, honor killings, domestic abuse, and sexual violence. But Afghan boys suffer many of the same risks, along with military recruitment into armed conflict, and sexual exploitation. Both girls and boys were exposed to dangerous labor practices, contact with landmines, and violence at home.

The vulnerable and defenseless members of Afghanistan’s population face great risk and a more uncertain future than ever. It is up to us to pressure our governments to make good on their promises and put pressure on the Taliban to respect human rights and ensure the safety of these groups. This may be the Afghan people’s only hope.

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