Another grim year for Afghanistan

Tanya  Goudsouzian

Members of Taliban taking control of the presidential palace in Kabul after Afghanistan's president flew out of the palace on 15 August, 2021 (AFP)

The fall of Kabul and the Taliban’s return to power was arguably the most shocking news to emerge from 2021, conveyed with the same PR savvy that characterised the group’s ramped-up campaign to oust foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Images of Taliban members posing triumphantly behind an ornate wooden desk at the presidential palace will forever illustrate the day a guerrilla force overthrew an elected government backed by the strongest militaries in the world.  

The image was a masterful stroke of propaganda and for the eagle-eyed observer, the painting behind the desk was no less symbolic. It depicts a mid-18th-century scene in which a large crowd looks on as a Sufi mystic crowns the kneeling Aḥmad Shah Durrani, an ethnic Pashtun tribesman who founded the modern Afghan state. 

Afghans are caught between a rock and a hard place. Frozen international aid funds would help to alleviate the severe humanitarian crisis, but it would legitimise Taliban's rule

The reasons for the Taliban takeover continue to be fiercely debated. Why did the Afghan army, after 20 years of first-world military training, armed with modern weapons and aircraft, collapse in less than two months? How did the Taliban develop such tactical prowess? Why did the international community merely stand by and watch? 

Then the final affront by US President Joe Biden. In his widely derided and tone-deaf remarks on 1 September, he cast blame on the Afghans themselves for their own misery, insulted the memory of fallen Afghan soldiers, and absolved his administration of any responsibility in the chaos of a bungled evacuation. 

As the year ends, a grim new reality emerges in Afghanistan. Mass starvation, economic collapse, and brutal extrajudicial executions greet the new year. The myth of a modern and more progressive Taliban 2.0, peddled by Taliban’s own PR machine and amplified by the world’s most respected media outlets continues to be discredited by ground reports of repressive policies toward women, reprisal killings, and gross human rights violations.

Despite repeated assurances by erudite spokesmen such as Zabiullah Mujahid and the Doha-based Suhail Shaheen in the weeks after the takeover, the newly formed Taliban administration is anything but broad-based and inclusive. The international community, still reeling from scenes of a botched mass evacuation and grappling with an outpouring of refugees, fecklessly watches from afar, merely voicing “concerns”, proclaiming “conditions” and declaring that “the Taliban will be measured by actions, not words.” 

Afghans are caught between a rock and a hard place. Frozen international aid funds would help to alleviate the severe humanitarian crisis, but would also legitimise the Taliban's rule. Some Afghans are calling to release the funds on humanitarian grounds, while others insist on using the funds as an incentive for the Taliban to yield on some of its repressive policies. In either case, funds will be siphoned off by the government or free up other government funds for questionable activities. It is certainly the case that humanitarian concerns are not at the top of Taliban's priorities.  

2022 looms large for the Taliban. The fledgling government is grappling with unprecedented humanitarian and financial crises, international condemnation, some measure of popular backlash, and a terrorist threat to its power and control.