Power Shift In Afghanistan

The Taliban vowed on Tuesday (17th Aug 2021) to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists as part of a publicity blitz aimed at reassuring world powers and a fearful population

- Gagan Bulathsinghala

The Taliban have encouraged women to return to work and have allowed girls to return to school, handing out Islamic headscarves at the door

Let me share some of my thought with my own experiences and unfolding events in Kabul. Afghanistan has been in deep political divisions, structural governance challenges, and economic insecurity to impede durable peace and development progress for years. The interruption of the fragile peace talks with the Taliban and the withdrawal of the NATO troops have created more uncertainty for Afghanistan. The power shift made on August 15 has complicated the matter further to a very higher proportion.

Afghanistan is located in the Central Asian region, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran Land: 652,230 sq. km. bordered by 6 countries with a 2,670 km border with Pakistan, 1,357 km with Tajikistan, 921 km with Iran, 804 km with Turkmenistan, 144 km with Uzbekistan, 91 km with China with 34 provinces. The population has four main ethnic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, with 11 other ethnic groups.

CIVIL WARS

Afghanistan was founded in 1747 when the Pashtun tribes were unified. The country gained independence from notional British control in 1919. Increased democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 communist countercoup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the Afghan communist regime, which led to a destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-communist Mujahidin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban. Following 2001, 09/11 attacks, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance sprung military action to topple the Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Laden.