One Year Since Kabul Fell To Taliban — Know All That Has Happened After Their Regime Regained Power

Last year on August 15, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. Here is an account of what has changed so far in the Taliban's one-year rule in Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters fire into the air to disperse Afghan women protesters in Kabul on August 13, 2022.

Source : AFP

Its been a year since the Taliban seized the Republic of Afghanistan. Since then, the Taliban has been trying to attain global recognition of the newly established government, the Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan, governed by Sharia Law. Taliban captured Kabul on August 15, 2021, after it made inroads as the US troops evacuated the war-torn nation. Taliban captured Kabul after democratically elected president Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Here’s an account of the significant decisions adopted by the Taliban government in this past year;

Human Rights Violations:

A report published by Amnesty International on June 16, 2022, mentioned that the Taliban have rejected any reports of civilian deaths, while these incidents are accompanied by a lack of accountability.

"As the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, the Taliban must take immediate steps to conduct thorough, impartial, and independent investigations of these incidents and prosecute those responsible for the torture, arbitrary arrests, and extrajudicial execution. To ensure accountability, and transparency and safeguard civilians from torture, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances, the Taliban must release information on all who have been arrested or detained and permit detainees to communicate with their families,” Amnesty International said. 

The report by Amnesty International also states that people connected to the old administration and its security forces were the most severely affected, with 160 extrajudicial deaths, 178 arbitrary arrests and detentions, and 56 documented cases of torture.

An unprecedented economic and financial crisis has also made the situation for human rights worse. Humanitarian aid is currently required by at least 59% of the population.

Women Rights Violations:

In the month of June, Heather Barr, the interim co-director at the Women’s division of Human Rights Watch said: “List of Taliban violations of rights of women and girls is long and growing.”

The recent report published by the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) emphasises that a year after Afghanistan’s abrupt transition to Taliban rule, the erosion of women’s rights is one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date.

Women and girls have seen their rights to access education, the workplace, and participate in public life, restricted. Not allowing girls to go to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their entire 12 years of basic education, UNAMA highlighted.

“Education is not only a basic human right but the key to the development of a nation,” said Markus Potzel, the UN acting Special Representative for Afghanistan.

• Hijab And Dress code: In the month of May this year, Shir Mohammad, an official from the Vice and Virtue Ministry, said in a statement, “For all dignified Afghan women wearing a Hijab is necessary and the best Hijab is chadori (the head-to-toe burqa) which is part of our tradition and is respectful.” 
• Girls To Attain Education Till 6th Grade: Girls will remain at home until a decision was made regarding an appropriate school uniform in "accordance with Sharia law and Afghan culture," the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency reported, citing a statement from the Ministry of Education. According to a tweet from the Afghan Ministry of Education, "All girls' schools and high schools above the sixth grade are informed that the lessons of these schools and high schools have been postponed till the second day, whenever a comprehensive plan is drawn up in accordance with Sharia and Afghan tradition and culture."

Ban On ‘Misleading’ PUBG & TikTok: 

The Taliban government in the month of March ordered a ban on video-sharing app TikTok and the online multi-player game PUBG, insisting they were leading Afghan youths "astray". BBC reported that the Taliban spokesman Inamullah Samangani said that the latest ban was necessary to "prevent the younger generation from being misled".