The Taliban promised not to allow Afghanistan to be used by groups seeking to attack the US, yet terrorist groups have only become more emboldened under its rule.
A Taliban fighter stands guard as a woman enters the government passport office, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in April 2022.
(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Research into 70 new Taliban policies to control women and girls shows the extremist, misogynistic group might be using different tactics, but it still poses grave dangers to Afghan society.
Afghan women chant during a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, in October 2021.
(AP Photo/Ahmad Halabisaz)
Afghan women activists, leaders and former politicians who are now in exile are telling of the continued struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan and women’s diverse strategies of resistance.
A burned library at Kabul University after a deadly attack in Kabul, November 2020.
(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
My friend, with whom I co-founded a library in Mazar-i-Sharif, tells me books are like lights. With no one visiting the library and opening books, ‘the lights are off.’
Women wearing burqas wait for free bread outside a bakery in Kabul on Jan. 24, 2022.
Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images
The Taliban’s recent abduction of 40 people, and gang rape of eight women, has not captured Western media attention. But activists inside Afghanistan point to worrying levels of violence.
The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August 2021, without major opposition.
Photo by Mohd Rasfan /AFP via Getty Image
Four months after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, a clearer picture of their rule is emerging. Despite public assurances, the Taliban continue to violate human rights.
Cash crop: poppy cultivation and heroin trafficking vie with people smuggling as some of the most lucrative ways of making money in Afghanistan.
EPA-EFE/Ghulamullah Habibi
The Taliban is responsible for atrocities dating back to the 1990s, but has never been held responsible. The international community can play a role in ending the impunity.
Afghan women are at the forefront of protest against Taliban oppression.
EPA-EFE/stringer
The Taliban say they won’t allow jihadi groups to flourish under their rule. But there is good reason to believe that al-Qaida, IS and other regional groups will benefit from the takeover.
Harsh punishments: the Taliban have announced they will reinstate execution and amputations.
EPA-EFE/stringer
Segregation and other measures being introduced by the Taliban’s hardline new government are being greeted with widespread protests, many of them led by women.
Afghanistan relies on informal money changers more than banks.
AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini
Various armed groups operating in Afghanistan will contest Taliban hegemony.
A U.S. Army soldier scans the irises of an Afghan civilian in 2012 as part of an effort by the military to collect biometric information from much of the Afghan population.
Jose Cabezas/AFP via GettyImages
The potential failure of the US military to protect information that can identify Afghan citizens raises questions about whether and how biometric data should be collected in war zones.
A mural in Afghanistan protests at the mob killing of Fakunda Malikzada: ‘Fakhunda’s murder is a stain on all Afghan men’.
Ayesha Ahmad