5x3 - The Taliban, explained

November 10, 2021

The roots of the Taliban movement go back to 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. They were there to prop up a communist Afghan government that was supported by a minority of urban residents. But the vast majority of Afghans lived in rural areas. Here, authority came from tribal and ethnic groups, and life revolved around conservative practices of Islam. Rural Afghans formed militias called mujahideen and drove out the Soviets. But then they fell into a civil war with each other. Out of this chaos emerged a group of Islamic teachers and students called the Taliban. They swept through the country, destroying mujahideen groups and imposing a strict order. In 1996, they took the capital city of Kabul. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until 2001, when the US invaded. In a sense, the cycle of invasion and rebellion began again. Urban areas were reformed while rural areas suffered, allowing the Taliban to resurge. In 2021, the Taliban took back Kabul and the country.