What’s happening in Afghanistan? What to know as experts warn of Taliban’s extremism
Only hours after schools reopened for girls for the first time in months in Afghanistan, the Taliban announced that those above the sixth grade would not be allowed to attend.
The news came as a shock to both Afghans and the international community as the Taliban had assured that girls could return to classrooms in the Persian New Year, or March 20, according to Time.
“It shows that the Taliban is exactly the same as before – they are against girls’ education,” Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan politician and journalist, told Al Jazeera.
Is the Taliban really the same as before 2001, and should foreign countries be worried? Here’s what experts say.
What is it like in Afghanistan right now?
After U.S. troops left Afghanistan, the government collapsed in August and the Taliban quickly assumed power of the country.
Now, the Taliban is imposing repressive measures, taking the country back in time — women must cover their bodies and faces, travel accompanied by a male, and stay home from school, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, senior expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace, wrote in Foreign Affairs on March 28.
International media such as Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have also been banned from the country, according to VOA.
These measures echo some of the edicts from the Taliban’s previous regime. During the Taliban’s last rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, the group “banned female education and most female employment,” according to Al Jazeera.
“The regime’s use of spectacular forms of violence — from the beheading of storefront mannequins and the ceremonial destruction of musical instruments to the disappearing of activists and the displayed corpses of alleged criminals — also evokes their past incarnation,” Mukhopadhyay wrote.
“The problem with the Taliban is their leadership is still from that generation,” Torek Farhadi, former International Monetary Fund official who once served as an adviser to the Afghan government, told McClatchy News.
Farhadi said he hopes younger members of the Taliban will question some of these repressive measures.
Should Western countries be worried?
Foreign governments should not assume they are immune to what’s happening in Afghanistan, Mukhopadhyay warns.
“Civil war could be possible, and the ensuing chaos could create a breeding ground for still more militant extremism,” she wrote.
“If they consolidate their power, even for a little while, Afghanistan may become an even more formidable sanctuary for extremism than it was in the 1990s,” she added.
If Afghanistan becomes increasingly isolated and repressive, “then I think there’s absolutely an increased threat for extremism to be able to grow and ultimately potentially negatively impact neighbors and even on an international scale,” Jason Campbell, RAND Corporation policy researcher and Afghanistan expert, told McClatchy.
“I think there are absolutely influential voices in the Taliban who would like nothing more than to return to a 1990s style of repression and sort of dominance in terms of the political community,” Campbell added.
But, he cautioned, we will likely not see a return to a similar scenario like in the 1990s when Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks.
The U.S., in addition to other foreign countries, is still very focused on that region and “will not be as permissive as perhaps it was back in the 1990s for these organizations.”
‘If they leave this courtyard in isolation, it becomes a junkyard’
“If Afghanistan becomes an isolated country, if the sanctions continue, if the economy goes bad, that’s where Afghanistan becomes a place where terrorists could take residence for very little money,” Farhadi said.
“That is why it’s so important that this time around the neighbors of Afghanistan are doing everything possible not to leave Afghanistan in isolation. Because they know that if they leave this courtyard in isolation, it becomes a junkyard. And in a junkyard of ideas and people, anything nasty can happen. It can even happen in a way that can reach other countries,” he added.
Officials from the U.S., Russia, China and Pakistan are scheduled to meet in China this week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Reuters reported.
The Taliban has been trying to get recognized by the international community as the rightful governing body of the country, Campbell said.
“The Taliban are absolutely and completely willing to permit the suffering of average Afghans and leverage that if it provides them an opportunity to improve their domestic political hand,” Campbell said.
But, The Guardian reported, “Western officials made it clear that diplomatic recognition will be impossible unless the decision on girls’ education is reversed.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 9:40 AM with the headline "What’s happening in Afghanistan? What to know as experts warn of Taliban’s extremism."
