The names “Taliban” and “Al Qaeda” are infamously recognized for their barbarities and atrocities tethered to numerous countries’ histories. Given the unspeakable Al-Qaeda has committed against America in years past, US Army forces have been dedicated to a commensurate military presence in Afghanistan and other Middle-Eastern epicenters to counter major terrorist activity; however, that devotion has been now upturned with recently the inauguration of President Biden who called for total withdrawal of American Soldiers from the 20 year-long war on terror. While the tapering of troops had been a relatively smooth operation, prominent anarchists such as the Taliban noticed their window of opportunity and prompted its detrimental results.
The Taliban was originally dispersed from Kabul in 2001 during the height of the military campaign which resulted in disseminated Taliban groups along the border of Pakistan. Taliban remnants consolidated their abilities into recapturing small settlements, then larger cities, and eventually culminating in the reclamation of Kabul in 2021. It may seem trivial as to how a repressed insurgent group would be able to overtake a well-funded, semi-stable government- let alone in a matter of days; yet to the world’s shock, the group had devised their collapse on the capital swiftly and efficiently with the surrounding, captured territory that left little room for opposition. President Ashraf Ghani initially fled the country noticing the encroaching Taliban lines around Kabul, which left only a few resistance fighters in government to fend for themselves against insurgent forces- allowing Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada to assume pseudo-presidency as a Taliban leader.
Although you may ask “How come the US did not make any attempts at armistice or negotiations with Afghanistan to prevent this very outcome?”, the US had settled on a peace agreement where America would release 5000 Taliban prisoners and withdraw troops while the terrorist organization would only restrict transgressions from any gathered force towards America or its allies. And in that same time, the national violence in Afghanistan had only rapidly risen while actively reinstating long-dreaded Taliban beliefs of entirely restricting women’s education or nullifying LGBTQ+ rights. The default punishment for a “condemnable” sexual orientation in Afghanistan is, according to a judge of their courts, “there were only two punishments for homosexuality — stoning or being crushed under a wall.” Just as for women who must completely refrain by law to not attend university, let alone teach there.
The scrupulous persecution of minority groups in Afghanistan epitomizes the injustice that lies in Taliban rule and the desperate need for American and Western government presence in this humanitarian crisis. Beyond the War on Terror and the trillions of dollars that have been already dedicated to consolidating the Afghan military and directly clashing with the Taliban, the global attention and efforts should be strictly guided to aiding those citizens with nowhere else to run; effectively, snuffing out the bright, revolutionary futures of women, LGBT people, and progressives that could carry Afghanistan into the modern cultural era. If Afghanistan ever had a universal plea for help, it is now more than ever.
Works Cited
Hollingsworth, Julia. “Who are the Taliban and how did they take control of Afghanistan so quickly?” CNN News, 24 Aug. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/16/middleeast/taliban-control-afghanistan-explained-intl-hnk/index.html. Accessed 31 Oct. 2021.
Westcott, Ben. “Angry and afraid, Afghanistan’s LGBTQ community say they’re being hunted down after Taliban takeover.” CNN News, 18 Sept. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/middleeast/afghanistan-lgbtq-evacuation-intl-hnk-dst/index.html. Accessed 31 Oct. 2021.
