Afghanistan: What Has Changed in One Year Since the Taliban’s Return

A year ago, the Taliban invaded the Afghan capital Kabul as foreign forces completed a hasty withdrawal.

Representing the Taliban at the time, Zabihullah Mujahid made many promises for the new government.

So has the government lived up to its promises?

The previous Taliban regime in the 1990s severely restricted women’s freedom. And since the Taliban seized power last year, a series of restrictions have been reimposed on Afghan women.

Dress codes and laws were enforced prohibiting access to public areas without a male guardian.

In March, schools reopened for the new school year, but the Taliban reversed earlier promises and girls are now not allowed to attend secondary school.

The Taliban blame the shortage of female teachers and the need to segregate facilities.

this affected An estimated 1.1 million students, according to the United Nations provoked widespread international criticism.

Primary education for girls is allowed.

Some public universities reopened for both men and women in February.

However, according to the World Bank, women’s participation in the workforce has declined since the Taliban took over last summer.

Over the decade from 1998 to 2019, the female labor force participation rate increased from 15% to 22%.

However, since the Taliban’s return to power, which has imposed further restrictions on women’s movement outside the home, the proportion of working women in Afghanistan has fallen Shrink to 15% by 2021.

Ann July amnesty report The Taliban said they had “undermined the rights of women and children” in Afghanistan. It highlighted the abuse and torture of some women who took part in protests against the new restrictions imposed.

In June, the UN Security Council reported that the Afghan economy had contracted by an estimated 30% to 40% since the Taliban took over last August.

An assessment by the official agency overseeing the US-funded reconstruction effort in Afghanistan concluded that although some international aid continues to flow into the country, the economic situation remains “dire.”

The suspension of most international aid and freezing access to Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves has had a severe economic impact on the country.

To compensate, the Taliban are seeking to increase tax revenues and increase coal exports to take advantage of rising global prices.

A three-month budget announced in January this year showed the Taliban had collected nearly $400 million in domestic revenue between September and December 2021.

Loss of international support, security challenges, climate-related problems, and global food inflation are all leading to a rapidly deteriorating economic situation.

Taliban pledge to tackle opium poppy cultivation reflects policies introduced by Taliban with some success When they were last in power over 20 years ago.

Opium is used to make heroin. Afghanistan has been the world’s largest source of opium for many years.

In April, the Taliban announced a ban on poppy cultivation.

There is no firm data on how the crackdown is progressing, but reports from several poppy-growing areas in the southern province of Helmand suggest The Taliban have forced farmers to destroy poppy fields.

An official US report in July noted that the Taliban risked losing support from farmers and others involved in the drug trade, but that they “seem to be committed to prohibiting drugs.”

But Afghan drug economy expert Dr. David Mansfield points out that the major opium poppy crop would have already been harvested by the time the ban was imposed.

“Second [annual] Crops in southwestern Afghanistan are generally small crops…so their destruction…had no significant impact,” says Dr. Mansfield.

It is also worth noting that the production and manufacturing of other drugs such as stimulants is growing. Although the Taliban banned the wild plant (ephedra) used to make it.

Although the conflict that brought the Taliban to power is largely over, there are still over 2,000 civilian casualties (700 dead and 1,400 wounded) between August of last year and mid-June of this year. has been reported. According to United Nations data.

But those numbers are significantly lower than the previous year, when the conflict was at its height.

About 50% of the casualties since August 2021 have been attributed to the actions of the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) group, a branch of the Islamic State group still active in Afghanistan.

In recent months, there have been several IS-K attacks targeting civilians, especially in urban areas populated by Shia Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

Other anti-Taliban forces, such as the National Resistance Front (NRF) and the Afghan Freedom Front (AFF), have also increased their presence.

“The overall security environment is becoming increasingly unpredictable,” the United Nations said in June, citing the presence of at least a dozen independent militant groups opposing the Taliban in the country.

Human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, detentions and torture by the Taliban, have also increased significantly, according to the United Nations.

At least 160 extrajudicial killings of former government and security force officials have been documented between August 2021 and June 2022.