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Five Years Since Kabul
Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, the anniversary is marked by contrasting portrayals of the country’s security and the restrictions imposed on daily life.
“able to maintain relative security and safety”
Al Jazeera frames the Taliban’s five-year record as including “relative security and safety” and the ability for Afghans to travel to parts of the country that were once inaccessible, while also describing failures tied to social policy and untransparent governance.
AP reports that some Kabul residents say they feel safer after decades of conflict but urge the Taliban to focus on “creating jobs and expanding access to schools,” noting that the Taliban regained control on Aug. 15, 2021 after an offensive as U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew.
In Kabul, the BBC describes how women live under escalating restrictions, with the BBC stating that “about 22 million women in the country live under restrictions that affect nearly every aspect of their lives.”
Education, Work, and Rights
The BBC says Taliban authorities imposed an escalating series of restrictions on women and girls since August 2021, including a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later closures affecting universities.
The BBC includes the account of Shkhiba, 18, who described the day the previous government fell as “That was the worst day of my life and the most painful,” and said each year she feels “as if an old wound is opened again.”
AP reports that the Taliban imposed an indefinite ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later banned higher education for women until “further notice,” while also banning women from entering gyms, parks and public baths and requiring a “mahram” for travel.
UN Women, as quoted by AP, says Afghan women and girls are living under “the world’s most severe restrictions,” warning that the exclusion of women and girls from education, employment, public life, justice systems and healthcare has “only intensified.”
Stability Claims vs Isolation
While the Taliban highlights security and infrastructure, multiple outlets describe ongoing international isolation and continuing pressure over rights and humanitarian access.
“there is no movement among member states in this regard”
AP quotes Taliban deputy minister Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi saying the administration delivered “security, stabilized the currency, improved infrastructure and formed industrial parks that have created jobs,” while also noting that he did not address girls’ and women’s education when asked.
DW reports that the Taliban have not made progress toward legitimacy at the United Nations and that Farhanq Haq said, “as far as I know, there is no movement among member states in this regard.”
DW also describes how, despite lack of formal recognition, the Taliban sent two diplomats and managed to seize control of the Afghan embassy in Berlin and the consulate in Bonn, while the German government said the purpose was to facilitate the repatriation of criminal Afghan refugees.
In parallel, Al Jazeera says the Taliban government remains “untransparent about public finances,” and that its unwillingness to consolidate state institutions “curtails its ability to cope with deep structural problems such as accountability and corruption.”
