Rise of the taliban (1994-1996)
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In August 1994, a new player entered the scene in the Afghan Civil War, the Taliban under the leadership of the mysterious Mullah Mohammed Omar, which Pakistan started backing instead of the Hezb-i Islami that was deemed ineffectual. (Goodson, 2012, p.76) The Taliban began as movement of madrassa students in Kandahar and refugee camps in neighbouring Pakistan that followed a very strict and fundamentalist view of Islam that sought to install Sharia law fused with certain Pashtun tribal customs in Afghan society. They sought an end to the chaos, violence and corruption of local warlords and in the quest managed to gain many new followers and allied fighters from Afghanistan and abroad. They were also backed by Salafi and Wahhabi Saudis who incidentally provided financial backing to al-Qaeda jihadists. In November, the Taliban captured Kandahar and controlled most of southern Afghanistan. (Goodson, 2012, p.110) They then proceeded to march towards Kabul capturing many territories along the way in 1995.
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Once in control of their new state, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, they installed an extremely small, decentralised and non-interventionist system of government while banning what they judged contrary to their interpretation of Islam. Women were widely oppressed and forced to wear the burqa and remain isolated in their homes from school and work, amongst many other restrictions. Television, musical instruments, photography and creative visual art were banned by the Taliban as well. Only one media with one channel survived - the radio. The funds available to the Taliban for developing their backwards and poor nation were provided largely from drug money and foreign backers, namely Osama Bin Laden. (Goodson, 2012, p.154)
The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence continued throughout Taliban rule to support them against Ahmad Shah Massoud’s Northern Alliance in the north-east, backed by Iran and India. In light of this, it can be said that much of the money the U.S. had lent or gifted to Pakistan during the Soviet-Afghan War and during the subsequent civil war benefitted a very anti-Western/secular fundamentalist Islamic regime that supported the training of terrorists and foreign Mujahedeen in camps located throughout the country
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