What is the Taliban?

The Taliban was formed in the early 1990s by Islamic fighters who had resisted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan throughout the 1980s, as well as younger Pashtun students; taliban is Pashto for "student." The organization was attractive to the people of Afghanistan because it promised stability after a turbulent decade. Its occupation began with the southern city of Kandahar in November 1994, and by September of 1996 the Taliban was able to seize the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, from President Rabbani. By its overthrow in 2001, it controlled more than 90 percent of the country.

The core of the Taliban was its rule of law and its particularly brutal justice system. It imposed a strict version of sharia law, outlawing things like television and music and even imprisoning men who did not have proper facial hair. Its treatment of women was particularly severe, requiring that women wear a head-to-toe burqa and permitting the abuse of women who did not abide by their laws. The Afghanistan Taliban also did not provide any social services or complete any other state functions that a different government would.