Taliban

The Taliban (literally, "students") are an Islamic fundamentalist movement which exercised rule over most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when United States forces invaded Afghanistan and removed them from their center of power . 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 fighters were educated in wahhabist "madrassahs" (religious schools) in Pakistan, which explains the strong connection with neighboring Pakistani provinces. Education in a Wahhabist "madrassah" emphasises the theological role of religious war ("Jihad") , to be waged defensively in the case of invasion into "muslim land", or offensively at the call of the Caliph.

The Taliban had close links to separatist insurgents in the Russian Federation province of Chechnya, and this resulted in two bloody wars since 1994, as the Russian government fought to suppress the rebellion. Chechen fighters returned the favor to their Taliban allies by aiding them in their current struggle against the NATO occupation. Anecdotally, it has been noted that the Chechnyans are valued by the Taliban military commanders, as they have extensive training and experience in the operation of Soviet heavy weapons against high value targets. .

The Taliban retain control of substantial tracts of Afghanistan to this day, and continue to co-ordinate attacks against the Afghan national government and supporting NATO forces. Many of the Taliban leaders and foot-solders are now believed to be based in Pakistan where they can launch attacks across the border into Afghanistan or train for attacks elsewhere.

Taliban rule was characterized by a strict adherence to Islamic law;women could not be educated or attend most hospitals, They required all men to grow beards and banned television along with all forms of imagery, music and sports, resulting in Afganistan being suspended from the 2000 Olympics.

According to the International Socialist Review, the Taliban started as the one of the armed Afghan factions known collectively as the "Mujahadeen" ( A term that has passed into popular use, specifically referring to the Arabic for Holy Warrior") funded by the CIA during the Afghan conflict against the former Soviet Union.The Taliban connection to the Mujahadeen weakened following the Soviet withdrawal and Afghan civil war. The majority of the Taliban leadership were born during the brutal Soviet occupation, and educated at Saudi funded Wahhabist madrassas. The majority of Mujadaeen appear to have taken on the jihadist ideology as a unifying tool against the Soviets - nothing more. The Taliban however took on the jihadist ideology as a way of life, and subsequently fought a war with the remnants of the communist government and the warlords to gain control of Afghanistan by late 1996. The Taliban rule was positively received by the majority of the population as despite the brutal application of Sharia law the rule brought the first stable government to the region for 40 years.

According to the BBC:

• the Taliban were 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

According to the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report:

• the Taliban had cut Afghanistan's heroin production by about 95%, but
• heroin had "financed the former Taleban regime".

Women under the Taliban

See: Women under the Taliban

The Taliban were extremely sexist. Women were not allowed to go outside or use public transportation with out a male relative, had to wear a burqa when they did go out, were not allowed to wear makeup or nail polish, and were not allowed to go to school. They were also not allowed to go to most hospitals when needed.