Taliban: why China wants them as a friend and not as a foe: The Taliban’s presence at the massive October jamboree in Beijiing to celebrate the 10th year of China’s ambitious trade plan, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is part of Beijing’s regional strategy. This was one of only a handful of foreign visits …
Afghanistan earthquakes: Taliban interference in aid efforts is affecting disaster response: Over 1,000 people are thought to have been killed in the latest earthquake to hit Afghanistan. Humanitarian aid agencies are scrambling to help the affected villages. But the realities of Taliban rule are starting to have an impact on the ground, as relations between …
Afghanistan: two years after Taliban takeover the west is letting down the democratic opposition: The consequences of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan two years ago are bad enough for the people who live there, especially women and girls, but also for the region and the world, in the flow of migrants and threat of terrorism. …
Two years after Taliban takeover: why Afghanistan still poses a threat to the region and beyond: The dramatic and rapid Taliban offensive in the spring of 2021 culminated in its takeover of Kabul on August 15. The chaos of the western withdrawal that surrounded the return of the Taliban represented a sad endpoint of two …
The Taliban is not playing straight with the west over easing of sanctions – and women and girls are paying much of the price: The economic and political isolation of Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021 has worsened a humanitarian crisis in the country. The World Food Program has projected that between November …
Afghanistan: single women and widows are struggling to find their next meal under Taliban restrictions: Jamila*, a widow living in Herat, lost her husband in a suicide attack about eight years ago. She has an 18-year-old daughter who is blind and a 20-year-old son who lost both legs in a mine blast. Jamila used to …
China is extending its dealings with the Taliban as it increases its superpower status: China is one of the few countries that is committed to expanding its dealings with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, where it hopes to expand its use of the vast natural resources while also improving its own geopolitical security. In mid-2021 …
Afghanistan: after a year of Taliban government, women are more oppressed than ever: The recent announcement that women and girls in Afghanistan have been banned by the Taliban government from visiting parks and gyms – even if accompanied by a male “chaperone” – has understandably been greeted with outrage. The UN special representative in Afghanistan …
Afghanistan: assassination of al-Qaida chief reveals tensions at the top of the Taliban: The killing of the al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Kabul by a US drone strike on July 31 raises some crucial questions. It appears the ruling Taliban were aware of, and gave their blessing to, al-Zawahiri staying in one of the residential …
The Taliban is holding girls’ education hostage in Afghanistan – the question is, why?: Afghan children and teenagers have not had much to look forward to since the Taliban took power in August last year. They have endured six months of uncertainty, anxiety and fear as they waited to see what Taliban rule would bring …
Afghanistan: Taliban plans for suicide brigade reveal changing nature of warfare in 21st century: The Taliban recently announced it will establish a battalion of suicide attackers as part of the national army of Afghanistan. These “martyrdom brigades” will be “under the control of the ministry of defence and will be used for special operations,” according …
Releasing US.5 billion in frozen assets can’t help the Afghan people as long as the Taliban remain in power: Afghanistan is in a major humanitarian crisis: the health sector is failing, the economy is collapsing, and amid the COVID pandemic, famine is inflicting ever-larger numbers of casualties. According to the most recent report by the …
What my 20 years in Afghanistan taught me about the Taliban – and how the west consistently underestimates them: It was April 1995, and I was preparing to travel to Afghanistan for my first volunteer post with a UK charity. I had travelled to London to meet the Afghanistan director for the non-governmental organisation (NGO) …
Afghanistan: Taliban face many obstacles to governing – not least their violent methods: Afghanistan has been nicknamed the “graveyard of empires” in reference to the failure of colonial attempts to govern it. Yet this often distracts from the sombre fact that anyone – whether insiders or outsiders – who has tried to establish control over …
Afghanistan: women are at the forefront of protests against the Taliban: Despite what they insisted as they swept through Afghanistan, the Taliban appear to have remained largely the same since the days they ruled the roost in the 1990s. But Afghan society has changed tremendously since they were ousted by the US-led invasion in 2001. …
Education in Afghanistan was a battlefield long before the Taliban returned: In the two decades that followed the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, significant progress was made in education in Afghanistan. By 2017, the number of schools had more than quintupled. School enrolment, from grades one to twelve, had reached 9.2 million pupils, …
The ‘new’ Taliban regime in Afghanistan: different methods but the same political goal: In the press conferences that have followed the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the group has projected a changed image. Its spokesmen have attempted to distance this Taliban from the legacy of brutal force and violent oppression of women and ethnic minorities that …
Afghanistan: ISIS-K violence could force the west into an unlikely alliance with Taliban: The decades-long conflict in Afghanistan was always far more than a simple case of the Taliban versus the Afghan government, or a US-led “war on terror”. This is because Afghanistan is not a single country in the sense of a legitimate system …