Afghanistan Today – Life Under the Taliban

Hunger, violence, denied rights, darkness. These are the words that represent Afghanistan today. A metaphorical darkness, in the soul, because repression creeps into every moment of Afghan life, and a real darkness because, as the activists of RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Afghanistan Women, tell us, “the instability of electricity has plunged the cities into a gloomy darkness”.

28.3 million Afghans, out of an estimated population of 43 million, will need humanitarian assistance in 2023. A huge figure, two thirds of the population, where hunger and absolute poverty mainly affect children, 54%, or more than 15 million, and women, 23%, or more than 6.5 million. Inflation is skyrocketing: in November 2022, the average price of diesel was 76% higher than two years earlier and that of a kilo of flour increased by 26% per year. The increase in prices is met by a drop in monthly family income: 17% in 2022 compared to 2021 (UNOCHA 2023 data).

With the interruption of international developmental support, which covered 75% of the country’s budget, Afghanistan plummeted into an economic catastrophe. A catastrophe that has its roots in the corruption of the leaders of the past governments, supported by NATO and the UN, under which only a few drops of the billions-of-dollar showers in humanitarian aid and developmental support reached the population (who, moreover, in the areas controlled by the Taliban, had to submit to various forms of extortion). And about the fate of the humanitarian aid that the UN continues to send to Afghanistan today, some doubts are raised: “There is a strong internal clash within the Taliban, with factions of various types, but for now they are staying together and will continue to do so as long as there is money to share. Money that comes from taxes and from abroad… formally it arrives as humanitarian aid, but only a minimal part reaches its destination”, a representative of Hambastagi, a secular and progressive party founded in 2004 and which operates clandestinely today, told us (In the following pages there is the complete interview).

To worsen the situation, Afghanistan is highly prone to natural hazards, the frequency and intensity of which are exacerbated by the effects of climate change and by the structural limitations in mitigating the impact of disasters. The country is facing a prolonged drought (we are entering the third consecutive year), to which floods and earthquakes must be added, which were more frequent in 2022 than in previous years, and, obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, with more than 40 years of armed conflict, Afghanistan has one of the highest levels of explosive devices’ contamination in the world today.

Trampled-on human rights

The 2004 Constitution has been suspended and, with a final clean-up, all the rules and regulations drawn up by the former Republic have been automatically abandoned because they were contrary to sharia. Freedom of expression, association, the right to a fair trial and, more generally, the most basic human rights have been repressed. Many journalists have been arrested, beaten and tortured, just for trying to report what was happening in the country (Amnesty International). A repression facilitated by the HIIDE system, able to detect biometric data of Afghan citizens, implemented by the US and believed to have ended up in the hands of the Taliban after the American retreat, and by the Afghan Personnel and Pay System (APPS) government database, which contains about half a million records relating to members of the Afghan military and police.

“Cities are heavily militarized. The Taliban are very well equipped…weapons, technology, and with this more modern and sophisticated equipment they try to scare the population. Searches are frequent: they rummage everywhere, even in women’s clothes, in their belongings. It is their way of terrorizing the population, of showing their total control,” RAWA tells us.

There are now 7 million Afghans who, in various statuses (including 2.1 million registered refugees), live outside the country; among them, many professionals, meaning a further impoverishment of the country. Furthermore, in some areas, fighting continues, but, especially, the attacks carried out by ISIS-K do not decrease: “The Taliban passed on the message that there would no longer be crime and there would be more security. But that’s not the case, everything continues as before”, the Hambastagi activist tells us. The only difference is that the Taliban have shut down almost all the media and therefore it is more difficult to know what is happening.

The abyss of Afghan women

Segregated at home, forced to remain silent, victims of a society that has historically discriminated against girls and women, Afghan women have plunged back into the nightmare of the first Taliban period (1996-2001). In September 2021, in violation of any promise made during the Doha agreements, discrimination against them had already started and today women:

• Are denied access to secondary schools and universities;
• Have been ordered to cover themselves completely, including their faces, in public, and, in general, to stay at home. They are also not allowed to make long-distance journeys if not accompanied by a man;
• Are forbidden from entering parks, amusement parks, gyms and public toilets;
• Are forbidden to work for NGOs;
• Have severe restrictions regarding working opportunities

The government’s impositions are accompanied by an increase in domestic violence, including forced marriage, which has its roots in traditional Afghan society, and which now remains totally unpunished. And where bans and tradition are not enough, it is fear that forces women not to go out: “It is said that the Taliban take girls to give them to their soldiers and therefore their families prevent them from going out into the streets, even to buy bread. And there are more and more girls who, locked up at home, without being able to go to school, show sleep and mental disorders”, they say from Kabul.

Furthermore, a strong sense of insecurity and instability remains, because the application of the decrees is inconsistent and unpredictable. In fact, the decrees are issued and implemented by different authorities, thus making it more difficult for women to know what is allowed and what is not.

Opposition to the Taliban

Just as in the 1980s the Western press was struck by the charisma of Ahmad Shah Massoud, today it has “elected” his son Ahmad, of the National Resistance Front, as representative of the opposition to the Taliban. But the FRN remains a group based on a fundamentalist and misogynist vision of society and is a reissue of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (known in the West as the Northern Alliance). Furthermore, although the Front fought against the Soviets and the Taliban in the first period, it was guilty of crimes against the Afghan population (Human Rights Watch) in the bloody years of the “warlords” (1992-1996). Finally, the young Massoud, who lived and studied in London, is little known at home.

Instead, the underground resistance of organizations such as RAWA and Hambastagi continues, which, with great difficulties, try to oppose the Taliban oppression.

The Taliban government and the international community

Although until the first months of 2023 no country has officially recognized the Emirate yet, there is no shortage of bilateral contacts. In addition to close relations with Pakistan and Qatar, the Taliban maintains economic ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

India, Russia, Iran and China are instead moved by the common concern that Afghanistan will become a haven and an incubator for jihadist movements in the area. And what better remedy than economic support? For now, China seems to be in the best position, with the recent signing of a contract for oil search and extraction in northern Afghanistan (an investment of 540 million dollars over 3 years). Opposite is the interest of the USA, who do not mind at all a jihadist activity in Iran, China and Russia.

The economic matter is not secondary. According to the United States Geological Institute (USGS), up to 60 million tons of copper and 2.2 billion tons of iron could be present in the Afghan subsoil, as well as cobalt, gold and other precious metals, but, especially, 1.4 million tons of the new gold of digital companies, the so-called rare-earth elements, such as lithium, lanthanum, cerium, neodymium.

Therefore, having contacts with the Taliban is in everyone’s interest, but Western countries must deal with their own public opinion: the EU and the UN have declared that the recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is conditional on the respect of human rights, of the rights of women and girls and on the building of an inclusive government across gender and ethnicity. But, the RAWA activists say that “an ‘inclusive’ government would be a catastrophe. It would mean including exponents of the past regime, fundamentalist and misogynist like the Taliban, and, precisely for this reason, willing to share power with them. And, even if among them there were female representatives, linked to those families and those parties, it would not be an advantage for Afghan women: their presence would only be used to legitimize the current system, without making any substantial difference.”