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I had the pleasure of traveling all over Afghanistan with @LorenzoTug and @AzizTassal for this story to try and answer one question:
Have the Taliban changed? https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-rule-territory/
Have the Taliban changed? https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-rule-territory/
To me the most shocking part of reporting this story were the Taliban responses to allegations of torture, beatings and arbitrary detention. Not a single Taliban member, from Doha leadership all the way down to unit commanders on the ground denied the allegations or apologized...
Perhaps the most revealing: @Zabehulah_M33 denied that a teacher had been beaten for committing adultery. He said the accusation wasn’t proven, but the teacher was beaten as a warning. He said this *on the record* - what’s this mean for the future of Af’s justice system?
Another Taliban member described a public lashing of a man accused of stealing a motorbike, a punishment he confidently defended. He said beatings *must* be public because thieves don’t fear the pain of the lashes, what they fear is the shame.
I will say that I am grateful that Taliban leadership was willing to respond to Qs on a sensitive subject on the record. It’s in stark contrast to how @ResoluteSupport interacts with media here in Afghanistan.
If you’re interested in what you get from @ResoluteSupport on sensitive subjects, check out their replies to our questions in the story below. The story is laced with: “declined to respond...” & “...declined to comment.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/09/04/afghanistan-civilian-casualties-us-airstrikes/?arc404=true
This question of have the Taliban changed has been knocking around in our bureau for a while. “They are not the Taliban of the 1990s,” is something we often hear US officials say. And that’s true...
Taliban leaders use smartphones, they give television interviews, as a militant organization they are more organized than ever before with a shadow governing structure.
But what does that mean for the lives of Afghans in territory they control?
But what does that mean for the lives of Afghans in territory they control?
The more ppl we spoke to the more complicated the answer to that Q became.
In one village the Taliban allowed a girl’s high school & then in a neighboring province girls are denied education beyond 6th grade. In other provinces there is not a single girls school in TB territory.
In one village the Taliban allowed a girl’s high school & then in a neighboring province girls are denied education beyond 6th grade. In other provinces there is not a single girls school in TB territory.
But the characteristic of Taliban control that we found *does not* change from district to district & province to province is the use of force: torture is commonplace and public beatings & executions are seen as crucial by the militants to maintaining order.
Civilians and Taliban officials did say public punishments are less frequent now than a few years ago, but they said it had nothing to do with a change in Taliban policy. Rather, they said years of brutal punishments have deterred infractions...
And the lives of women: this was one of the most disheartening aspects of the reporting. In some places, like the Taliban-held village in Nangahar we visited last year, there are female nurses at local clinics and in some places girls now have access to primary education...
But the bottom line is women in the Taliban’s Afghanistan are almost entirely absent from public life and denied equal access to education and employment.
And as the group expands their reach militarily, women in government-held territory are feeling the effects:
And as the group expands their reach militarily, women in government-held territory are feeling the effects:
A young mother in Kandahar told us she has begun taking vocational classes because she fears the Taliban will come back to power, and she wants to learn a skill she can practice when she’s no longer allowed to leave her home.
When she was walking home from one of those classes young men on a motorbike shouted at her “Why are you leaving your home?!” And pulled her headscarf, partially revealing her hair. I was trying to think of how to explain how violating an act this is...
The closest comparison that I can relate to is that it’s similar to a man in the United States partially ripping off a woman’s shirt.
This woman’s view of Afghanistan’s future made for the most chilling quote in our story:
“Dark days are coming again.”
“Dark days are coming again.”
