Taliban fighters ride through the streets of Kabul on a captured police humvee hours after president Ashraf Ghani fled the Afhgan capital on 15 August 2021.
Andrew Quilty
Violent performance is the Taliban’s language. If we view them as savage, backward or misogynistic, the opportunity to learn how to face them is missed.
Hundreds of people who want to flee the country gathered outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021.
AP photo
The dangerous situation faced by Afghans who want to flee, but can’t, shows how unwilling or unprepared the US and other countries are to deal with refugees.
With the return of the Taliban to power, the future of girls’ education in Afghanistan hangs in the balance.
ton koene / Alamy Stock Photo
The recent Taliban takeover has observers worried about Afghan education. But even under western occupation, the education system was plagued by corruption and political instability.
The US president inherited a situation with no good solution in Afghanistan, but the latest bombing will raise questions about his judgment and cloud his presidency.
Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid (centre) talks with journalists during a press conference in Kabul, August 17 2021.
EPA-EFE/stringer
The Taliban has promised an ‘inclusive’ new government. But early signs aren’t promising.
U.S. soldiers stand guard along the perimeter of the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hundreds of Western nationals and Afghan workers have been flown to safety since the Taliban reasserted control over the country, but still in hiding are Afghans who tried to build a fledgling democracy.
(AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani)
The Vietnam War was the defining issue for Joe Biden’s generation. His botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan could be the defining act of his presidency.
Unconquered: the people of the Panjshir Valley have successfully fought off invaders since the Soviet Union in the early 1980s.
EPA-EFE/Hedayatullah Amid
Hanif Sufizada got caught in Kabul as the Taliban took over. A scholar and resident of the US who works at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Sufizada describes his experience trying to leave.
A US Black Hawk military helicopter flies over Kabul airport after the Taliban took control, August 16.
AAP
Scenes of mayhem unfolded at Kabul airport overnight, as foreigners and Afghans try to flee Afghanistan following the seizure of the capital by the Taliban. This is Kabul’s ‘Saigon moment’.
Even before the Taliban broke through, opium poppy cultivation was surging.
Reuters/Alamy