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Taliban in Afghanistan Essay Imagine, a person who has lived all their life in Afghanistan with their rights protected and nothing to worry about besides working towards a good life and looking forward to what the future holds. Then, every hope they have comes crashing down within days as military personnel withdraws from the country, and the Taliban takeover strips many citizens of the only rights they've known, and the 20 years of rights many have experienced. This is the reality of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. The takeover is the Taliban overthrowing the Afghan government and putting in place their own rules that the people of Afghanistan must follow or they would be severely punished. It's estimated that 500,000 jobs have been lost(news.un.org) and more than 4 million people in Afghanistan have been displaced due to fighting(amnesty.org). While the Taliban believe their actions are justified, they are committing many human rights violations against citizens in Afghanistan by forcing their beliefs throughout the entire country, such as arbitrary arrests, public killings, and other actions. To understand what's going on, knowing who and what the Taliban is will be crucial to understanding the topic. The Taliban is an ultraconservative political and religious group (Swift). The Taliban was originally a group of fighters who were created in the 1990s by Afghanistan and Islamic guerilla fighters who had resisted the Soviets in their war in Afghanistan between the years 1979-89 (Warikoo et al.). The Taliban were created by religious students and scholars who wanted to confront crime and corruption. Over time, the group expanded to a network of Islamist militants, many of which were kids between the ages of 13 and 17 years old ("Child Taliban Soldiers"). This is fitting because the name Taliban means student in Arabic. The Taliban emerged in the 90s as the Soviet Union withdrew. By 1992 the Taliban had begun their attack on Afghanistan and after four years of fighting reached the capital Kabul in 1996 to overthrow the Afghan government, and declare themselves in control of the new Afghanistan Islamic Emirate (Warikoo et al.). Furthermore, the main locations of these events are in Afghanistan's cities, where lots of civilians are located. Other main targets are areas of government importance, whether its cities, or roads leading to an area of importance, the Taliban are focusing there. One example of this is the Taliban focusing on capturing Kabul because it is the capital city, so it's an important location for the government and the Kabul airport is there so there are many civilians let alone the population of the Kabul is 4.43 million people ("War in Afghanistan''). Previously, when the Taliban were in control, between 1996 and 2001, they controlled around 90% of the country. Within days the Taliban had captured more than 10 major cities in Afghanistan ("War in Afghanistan"). Another location is Iran, Iran has been a location of conflict because most refugees were fleeing across the Iran and Afghanistan border. But a conflict between the Taliban and Iran's border guards has been hurting this chance at freedom for the refugees, and Iran is on the brink of closing the border ("War In Afghanistan"). The next details we need to understand are when did this begin. On September 11, 2001, the Al-Qaeda terrorist group conducted the biggest terrorist attack in their history on the United States. This attack on the US began an operation called Enduring Freedom, which later evolved into America's longest war ever. On October 7, 2001, the US began its invasion of Afghanistan by conducting bomb and missile strikes. Twelve days later, US troops began their assault on the ground; these attacks were to target the Al-Qaeda leaders and the Taliban who were sheltering these terrorists (Bloch). This conflict began the 20-year war and sparked the flames of hatred between the groups involved. Throughout the years 2001 to 2021, there were many conflicts between the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and the United States and its ally countries fighting against them, but when the US and Nato forces announced the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan, it got a lot worse. Within 10 days, the Taliban had swept through Afghanistan and were at the gates of the capital city fighting to overthrow the government. Throughout these ten days, many human rights violations against the people of Afghanistan were committed ("Taliban Takeover Worsens Rights Crisis''), such as limiting access to food and water or health care. Other forms of human rights violations include the denying of the right to fair trials, targeted killings, and violence. ("Taliban stamp human rights"). Not only were many human rights violated in these 10 days, but these violations continued after the Taliban gained power over Afghanistan. When the Taliban reached the Panjshir valley, they were met with severe resistance, and because of this, the Taliban began to violate more human rights in hopes of getting the resistance to surrender. These violations included forced kidnappings, rape, and blockading of supplies such as food and water (Bloch). Next, what needs to be understood is who all is involved in the conflicts and what Afghanistan and other countries are doing that is majorly affecting Afghanistan in both good and bad ways. First, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, these two groups are who began the war in Afghanistan because the Al-Qaeda planned out and carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States and the Taliban protected them and gave them shelter in their country (B-oghani) which is the reason the Afghanistan war began. Next, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, are the only four that support and recognize the new government run by the Taliban. Three of those countries supported the Taliban government in their time of power from 1996 to 2001 and stated that they will once again recognize the new government (Warikoo). Other countries are providing food and water to Afghanistan as well as aid; these countries are Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan, and Germany. Lastly, Iran shares a border with Afghanistan and the border crossing road that travels between the two countries is very important for people moving in and out of the countries but is also used heavily for trade, due to conflict between Iran's border guards and the Taliban Iran may close the Border, making it more difficult than it already is to get supplies into the country and for people who want to and can leave out of the country ("Iran, Afghan Border"). The next piece of information is who is being targeted. Many of the people being targeted are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and Shia Hazaras. The Taliban don't believe that any one part of the LGBTQ community should exist. So they are carrying out arrests and attacks on people believed or known to be part of the community ("LGBTQ in Afghanistan ''). Another group of people being targeted by the Taliban are journalists, judges, and peace activists. The Taliban are targeting many of these people because journalists wrote about how the Taliban affected and hurt Afghanistan during their years of power, and the judges were many of the people who ruled against them in court, which harms the Taliban's appearance ("Who are the Taliban?"). Furthermore, former government workers and members of the Afghanistan National Security Forces are being tracked down by the Taliban (''Taliban kill ex-Officials). And many who worked for the previous Afghan government are being targeted with forced kidnappings and killings in which their bodies are left behind for the families to find ("Taliban takeover Afghanistan"). Lastly, girls and women are being targeted; girls are unable to attend secondary schools and women are being banned from the workforce; both aren't able to wear their choice of clothing either they have to wear what the Taliban say or they will get punished, tortured or killed (Cole). Furthermore, we need to understand what rights are being violated and how those rights are being violated. The first right the Taliban are violating is the right to education; many secondary schools are closed to girls and due to bombings and scares of torture and kidnapping conducted by the Taliban many boys are also not attending schools, so the attendance rates are at an all-time low and it is hard to find teachers willing to work ("Taliban Stamp Rights"). The right to health is another right being violated, in the first two months of the Taliban being in power over 3,000 clinics had closed and more than 66,000 cases of measles in children had been diagnosed; this is mostly due to lack of funding ("Taliban Stamp Rights"). Another way the Taliban is denying human rights is through blockading of supplies such as food and water or medical supplies into Afghanistan, as well as hunting down health care workers and executing them ("Taliban Stamp Rights"). Another way the Taliban are violating rights is by denying the right to a fair trial by placing biased judges to rule against the people and convict them even if they truly are innocent and due to the lack of mechanisms to investigate these incidents nothing is happening and these violations continue to happen ("civil society under siege"). Lastly, the Taliban are carrying out targeted attacks on civilians such as bombings of residential areas such as cities and schools (Roth), an example of this is a Taliban suicide bomb attack on Aug 26, 2021, at the Kabul airport as American troops were waiting to leave. This attack killed 169 civilians and 13 U.S. troops (de Castro et al.). Many of these civilian targeted attacks could be filed as war crimes under international law.