Taliban, which means “students” is an Islamist militant and political group that ruled in large parts of Afghanistan. The group was started at Kandahar and the man leader of the group is Mullah Mohammed Omar. The group enforced strict interpretations of the Sharia law and was condemned internationally for their brutal repression of women. The Taliban movement is primarily made up of members belonging to the Pashtun tribe which is the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Pakistan has been widely alleged by the International community for its support to the Taliban, but the country has dropped its support since the 9/11 attacks. It’s said that Saudi Arabia provides financial support to the group for its functioning.
During their rule in the country, Taliban and their allies committed massacres against the civilians and starved 1,60,000 civilians by denying U.N food supplies. They had destroyed thousands of homes and burnt vast areas of fertile land during their rule from 1996 to 2001. During their regime, Taliban was known for corruption, brutality, and incessant fighting. They used anti-modern ideology, thus prohibiting satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues and also got rid of employment , education and sports for all women. In such an environment, war meant employment, peace meant unemployment. Dominating women simply affirmed manhood. They believed that if they gave women greater freedom, they would lose the support of their rank and file. The Taliban mainly strictly enforced its ideologies in major cities like Herat, Kabul, and Kandahar.
The governance in the country during the Taliban rule was such that they did not hold elections, thus being secretive and dictatorial. They gave no salaries to officials or soldiers, just food, clothes, shoes, and weapons.
The Taliban during their rule abused even the basic rights of a human being. There had been "15 massacres" between 1996 and 2001. Eyewitnesses in many villages described Arab fighters carrying long knives used for slitting throats and skinning people. Women were raped, and thousands of people were locked in containers and left to suffocate. The Taliban had forced hundreds of thousands of people from the Shomali Plains and other regions conducting a policy of scorched earth burning homes, farm land and gardens, during their rule in the country.
The Taliban commanders were also known to have indulged in the trafficking of women. The targets were generally women from the Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Some women preferred to commit suicide over slavery, killing themselves. The women were penned up inside Sar Shahi camp in the desert. The more desirable among them were selected and taken away. Some were trucked to Peshawar with the apparent complicity of Pakistani border guards. Others were taken to Khost, where bin Laden had several training camp. The trail of many of the vanished women leads to Pakistan where they were sold to brothels or into private households to be kept as slaves.
The Taliban created a economic and political breakdown of the country. Not only did they oppress women and indulged in trafficking, they also killed thousands of civilians for no reason at all. This rule of harassment had become a topic of discussion internationally but even the United Nations was not able to put forth a helping hand. Hence the disastrous rule of the Taliban took lives of many people of Afghanistan making the situation worse rather than making it better.
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