An Update on the State of Afghanistan
Afghanistan has been back under the rule of the Taliban for nearly four years. By 30 August 2021, all American personnel were evacuated out of Afghanistan, and the Taliban began to take back control of the country. The state of Afghanistan has been perilously declining as a direct result of America’s abrupt withdrawal. This article will serve as an update on new laws that have been implemented by the Taliban and on the general status of Afghanistan.
The human rights implications of the Taliban takeover have been the most detrimental of all the impacts, most severely affecting women and girls. Female employment has decreased by 25 per cent following the Taliban’s rise to total power. On 21 August 2024, the Taliban implemented a new ‘Morality Law,’ also known as the ‘Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law,’ which imposed greater restrictions on women.
These further restrictions include a stricter dress code that requires women to cover their whole bodies, including their face, and even restricts when a woman can speak. This also included mandates upon interactions between men and women. For example, women are not permitted to even look at men to whom they are not related to directly or by marriage.
This type of mandate is ambiguous and difficult to enforce. It must be assumed then that authorities can take as many liberties with the interpretation of this law as they wish, which opens up the possibility for women to be arbitrarily arrested. Arbitrary arrests of Afghans are not uncommon, and laws like these give police the leeway required to be able to take unwarranted action against women.
While in prison, women do not receive humane treatment. An account from Narges Sadat dating from November 2024 details her experience being detained by the Taliban and describes the squalor conditions and abuse. At the end of her testimony, she calls for the Taliban to be held accountable in international courts.
From an economic perspective, Afghanistan has seen instability. The World Bank states that ‘Afghanistan’s economic outlook remains highly fragile with a very limited revenue base.’ Foreign aid has largely decreased since the Taliban assumed power, which has had a detrimental effect not only on the economy, but the humanitarian crisis as well. Additionally, overseas assets belonging to the central Afghan bank have been frozen, preventing proper economic growth.
Health and sanitation have also suffered under the Taliban, with the closure of multiple health centers since 2021. Additionally, women are not permitted to work in the health sector, leading to a worker shortage, especially in women’s healthcare.
Although overall violence has decreased following the Taliban’s rise to power, this is largely due to the unrivaled nature of the Taliban government. They have a complete hold over Afghanistan, so this impression of increased stability can be misleading without context.
The presence of United States and other allied forces in Afghanistan effectively prevented the Taliban from taking control as they served as one of the only forces of resistance in the country and trained the Afghani army. The difficulty of the situation was that America could not stay in Afghanistan forever—eventually they would have had to exfiltrate. The pullout itself was not the issue, however; the way it was conducted was riddled with chaos, with some Afghans who had helped American troops throughout the war left behind to fend for themselves and their families against the Taliban.
The United States grossly underestimated both the power of the Taliban and the weakness of the Afghan government. Although the United States had trained Afghani forces and had expected them to fight against the Taliban, the Afghani forces did not follow through. This meant that when the Americans left, the Taliban met very little resistance or barrier to their assumption of power.
The current state of Afghanistan is a direct result of the chaotic American withdrawal of 2021 that allowed the Taliban to take control. Overall, Afghanistan over the last few years has been increasingly concerning on several levels, with the humanitarian crisis and lack of rights for women and girls being the direst of the situations. These problems unfortunately continue to persist in Afghanistan, and the Taliban must be held accountable according to international law.
Image courtesy of Getty Images via BBC, ©2021. Some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
