The Taliban’s war on bread, work, and freedom
The Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021 was notably met with near-universal mourning and anguish throughout the country. Probably no regime change in the modern history of Afghanistan was met with such widespread gloom. The people rightly feared a Taliban reign of repression was going to increase poverty, joblessness, ethnic discrimination, arbitrary violence, and oppression of women.
There were Taliban propagandists who argued that the Taliban had “changed,” that they had learned from their previous mistakes and had opened their eyes to the realities of the world. The phrase “Taliban 2.0” was popularized to convey this idea of a “changed” Taliban. They argued that they were no longer the radicalized village youth of the nineties whose idiotic policies had stunned the world. Of course, there were some who wanted to believe this. They wished and desired that the Taliban have “changed” so that they would refrain from their more hurtful policies out of self-interest.
Now that the Taliban have been in power for three years, people’s fears have come true. The fundamental core of Taliban philosophy has remained unchanged. They are establishing a theocratic tyranny and denying the people of the country the right to say anything about their own affairs.
The guiding Taliban principle is that they have a divine duty and a godly right to governance. They are demanding absolute subservience to their leader, who is claiming to be ruling on behalf of God and God’s religion. The mullah in Kandahar defines God’s laws and national interests and the people are forced to accept this; otherwise, they risk going against God’s laws and national interests. The mullah has also decreed that any criticism of his policies and his Emirate is forbidden by the command of God’s laws.
Of course, according to the Taliban’s understanding of the world, the people of Afghanistan are Muslims, follow God’s laws, abide by the national interests, and do not object to the Taliban’s governance. Therefore, all criticisms are Western propaganda and those who object to the Emirate’s policies are brainwashed and want to give the Emirate a bad name.
In the last three years, they have monopolized power and economic resources and have meticulously worked to consolidate their theocratic tyranny. They use brute force and violence to subjugate the population. In the last three years, we have noticed an intensification of the perversity inherent in their methods of repression. To terrorize the population into submission, they abducted girls and women from the streets for breaking hijab rules, sexually assaulted them in custody, and then flatly denied that the abductions ever happened.
They would abduct and murder publicly active women and then produce video documentaries fabricating stories as a way to deny responsibility in those crimes. Lying and doublespeak are fundamental to the identity of the “changed” Taliban 2.0. What they have changed is improving their methods of denying and lying.
The experience of the last three years of Taliban governance amply shows that the trajectory of the people of the country is grim. The prolongation of the Taliban rule is going to intensify the cultural, economic, and social destruction of the country and intensify the misery of its people.
The worst nightmare of the people of Afghanistan is for them to be subjected to a prolonged Taliban tyranny, which means that the country and its population will become less educated, more backward, poorer, and austere, and a prison for women.
The spontaneous women’s movement that rose to oppose the new Taliban regime chanted, “Bread, Work, and Freedom.” This slogan captured the social and political aspirations of the people and has defined the dividing line between the people and the Taliban regime. The Taliban in power means they are at war with people’s Bread, Work, and Freedom. To achieve a dignified life and freedom for the people of Afghanistan, the Taliban regime must go.
It is a tragedy of historical proportions that a century after Amanullah Khan’s reforms, we are in the grip of the political children of Mullah Lang who are implementing a century-old recipe of village idiocy on the whole country. This history teaches us that this nightmare will not end without a prolonged and organized effort to change our destiny. If we want to change our circumstances, we must plan and work as a society to carve a different path for future generations.