Taliban

The Taliban (Pashtun and Persian: طالبان; "students"), also transliterated as Taleban, is an Islamist and Pashtun nationalist movement which effectively ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, despite having diplomatic recognition from only three countries: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. The most influential members, including Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the movement, were simple village ulema (Islamic religious scholars). The Taliban movement derived mainly from Pashtuns of Afghanistan and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, but also included many non-Afghan volunteers from the Arab world, as well as Eurasia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. In Winston Churchill's story of the Malakand Field Force (1897) the 'Taliwan', a warlike group of tribes on the North-West Frontier are mentioned.

Life under Taliban rule

Islamic law

Once in power, the Taliban instituted a form of Sharia (Islamic law). The Taliban's reform of government was in part directed by scholars of Islamic law. Among the laws applied were criminal punishments, administered by a religious police force, including amputation of one or both hands for theft and stoning for adultery.

Related Topics:
Sharia - Amputation - Hand - Theft - Stoning - Adultery

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The Taliban banned all forms of television, imagery, music and sports. Wearing white shoes - the color of the Taliban flag - was illegal and men were required to keep their beards at a specified length.

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Opium trade

Although the Taliban reportedly banned opium poppy cultivation in late 1997, opium production in Afghanistan may have increased through the year 2000, accounting for 72% of the world's illicit opium supply, according to U.S. government sources. Most Afghan opium is sold in Europe and not the United States.

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On July 27, 2000, the Taliban again issued a decree banning opium poppy cultivation. The announcement of the ban caused prices to rise from $30 per kilogram to $500 per kilogram.

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There was comment from the international human rights community on the brutality of the Taliban's anti-drug interdictions, including violent punishment of offenders.

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The U.S. State Department noted in 2001 that "Neither the Taliban nor the Northern Alliance has taken any significant action to seize stored opium, precursor chemicals or arrest and prosecute narcotics traffickers. On the contrary, authorities were said to continue to tax the opium poppy crop at about ten percent, and allow it to be sold in open bazaars, traded and transported."

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However, the Taliban had succeeded in cutting annual poppy production from a CIA-estimated 4,042 tons per year to only 81.3 tons per year. In 2001 The United States provided $43 million worth of "supplies" (primarily wheat) to "humanitarian relief organizations" for distribution to the people of Afghanistan, while continuing to criticise the Taliban's activities. This was widely reported by critics of U. S. policy (such as Robert Scheer) to be a $43 million reward to the Taliban for reducing poppy production. The Taliban subsequently raided the shipments, but no evidence has been offered to indicate that this was the United States' intention.

Related Topics:
CIA - Humanitarian relief - Robert Scheer

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Poppy production increased with the fall of the Taliban government.

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Women

The Taliban limited the right of women to work in public places. However, women had the right to work and set up their own business from their houses. Women were permitted to work unless they had a baby in which then work was forbidden in order to stay home and treat their new born or children. The Taliban believed women should stay home in order that their child does not have to grow up in the care of another. Working is the duty of the male in the house and to reject this duty was haraam.

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Taliban religion minister, Al-Haj Maulwi Qalamuddin, told the New York Times that "To a country on fire, the world wants to give a match. Why is there such concern about women? Bread costs too much. There is no work. Even boys are not going to school. And yet all I hear about are women. Where was the world when men here were violating any woman they wanted?"

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Although the Taliban claimed that the education of girls in rural Afghanistan was increasing, a UNESCO report alleged that there was "a whopping 65 per cent drop in their enrollment. In schools run by the Directorate of Education, only 1 per cent of the pupils are girls. The percentage of female teachers, too, has slid from 59.2 per cent in 1990 to 13.5 per cent in 1999."

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A Taliban spokesperson claimed that "Health facilities for women have increased 200% during Taliban administration. Prior to the Taliban Islamic Movement's taking control of Kabul, there were 350 beds in all hospitals in Kabul. Currently, there are more than 950 beds for women in exclusive women's hospitals."

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Supporters of the Taliban suggested that the depression and the other problems plaguing Afghani women were the result of dire poverty, years of war, the bad economy, and the fact that many were left war widows, and could no longer provide food for their families without some sort of international aid.

Related Topics:
Poverty - International aid

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Women were also obliged to wear the burqa when appearing in public. Failing to wear the burqa was a cultural and religious taboo in Afghanistan under the Taliban. The United States alleged that this was a case of the Taliban oppressing women. The Taliban stated that women were obliged to wear the burqa due to Islamic teachings which state that women must cover up her body in front of non-mahram men and both men and women should dress modestly.

Related Topics:
Burqa - Islamic - Mahram

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Buddhas of Bamiyan

In March 2001, the Taliban ordered the demolition of two statues of Buddha carved into cliffsides at Bamiyan, one 38 metres tall and about 1800 years old, the other 53 metres tall and about 1500 years old. The act was condemned by UNESCO and many countries around the world, including Iran.

Related Topics:
March - 2001 - Bamiyan - UNESCO - Iran

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The intentions of the destruction remain unclear. Mullah Omar initially supported the preservation of Afghanistan's heritage, and Japan offered to pay for its preservation. After a few years a decree was issued claiming all idols must be destroyed. Locals claim that Pakistani engineers were onsite to help in its destruction and that Afghanistan's treasures were ferried across the border to be plundered by private collectors.

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