Taliban
The Taliban is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist movement which effectively ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when United States forces invaded Afghanistan and overthrew them. It started as the one of the armed Afghan factions funded by the CIA during the Afghan conflict against Soviet Union.[1] The Taliban allowed al-Qaeda (a militant Sunni Islamist organization) use of Afghan territory to plot, train, and conduct terrorist activities across sovereign international borders.
The Taliban had close links to separatist terrorists in Chechnya, and this resulted in two bloody wars since 1994, as the Russian government fought to suppress the terorists. Chechen terrorists also fought for the Taliban against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The Chechens also had links to Al Qaeda.[1] The Taliban retains control of substantial tracts of Afghanistan to this day, and continues to co-ordinate attacks against the Afghan government and supporting coalition forces. Many of the Taliban leaders and foot-solders are now believed to be based in Pakistan where they can launch attacks into Afghanistan or train for attacks elsewhere[2].
The word "taliban" means "students".
The Taliban's rule was characterized by a fanatical intolerance for other religions and the fact that women could not be educated. Additionally, the Taliban banned all forms of television, imagery, music and sports, resulting in Afganistan being suspended from the 2000 Olympics. The Taliban were also strongly against drugs; since their overthrow heroin production in Afghanistan has increased massively and the country is now once again the world's largest producer[3][4]