3. BACKGROUND
The Taliban, who refer to themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, became Afghanistan’s de facto authorities when they overthrew the previous government in August 2021. The armed group was founded in 1994, during the civil war that followed the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996 and ruled most of Afghanistan until 2001.1 US and coalition forces, in cooperation with Afghan forces from the Northern Alliance, invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and ousted the Taliban from power.2 Despite extensive and protracted military operations by the US-led coalition and Afghan national security forces, the Taliban gradually regained territory and expanded their influence in Afghanistan.3 In February 2020, the USA and the Taliban signed an agreement laying out a timeline for the final withdrawal of all US and NATO forces from Afghanistan. In exchange, the Taliban agreed to prevent Al-Qaida from operating in areas under Taliban control and to engage in talks with the Afghan government.4 The agreement failed to address any protections for women’s rights, and women’s rights activists and organizations were largely excluded from the negotiations that led to the agreement.5 In April 2021, US President Biden announced his plan to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan by 11 September 2021.6 By July 2021, the USA and NATO had withdrawn almost all of their forces. During a bloody nation-wide offensive, the Taliban took control of their first provincial capital, Zaranj, in Nimruz province, on 6 August and swept through other major cities over the next nine days, taking Kabul on 15 August 2021.7
1 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Who are the Taliban?”, carnegieendowment.org/2009/10/22/who-are-talibanpub-24029 (accessed 16 May 2022). 2
Council on Foreign Relations, “The U.S. war in Afghanistan”, cfr.org/timeline/us-war-afghanistan (accessed 17 May 2022).
3 This international intervention caused significant civilian casualties. See Amnesty International, Left in the Dark: Failures of Accountability for Civilian Casualties Cause by International Military Operations in Afghanistan (Index: ASA 11/006/2014), 11 August 2014, amnesty.org/en/documents/asa11/006/2014/en/ 4 New York Times, “Taliban and US strike deal to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan”, 29 February 2020, nytimes. com/2020/02/29/world/asia/us-taliban-deal.html 5 Foreign Policy, “Women cut out of the Afghan peace process”, 30 March 2021, foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/30/afghanistanwomen-taliban-peace-talks-biden/ 6 The White House, “Remarks by President Biden on the way forward in Afghanistan”, 14 April 2021, whitehouse.gov/briefingroom/speeches-remarks/2021/04/14/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-way-forward-in-afghanistan/ 7 For more on the civilian cost of this offensive, see Amnesty International, see No Escape: War Crimes and Civilian Harm During the Fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban (Index: ASA 11/5025/2021), 15 December 2021, amnesty.org/en/documents/asa11/5025/2021/ en/, Chapter 1.
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D E AT H I N S L O W M O T I O N : W O M E N A N D G I R L S U N D E R TA L I B A N R U L E
