Can the Taliban tackle Afghanistan’s terror problem?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Following the exit of US forces in 2021, the Taliban rolled back into power almost immediately. They promised that they had learnt from previous mistakes and did not want to minimalize the role of women. However, little over 18 months later and the Taliban have just announced that women were now banned from the universities and working for NGO’s, just the latest in a succession of repressive policies aimed at women.
Furthermore, Afghanistan still has an insurgency problem. The Islamic State of Khorasan, or IS-K, formed in 2016 following disaffected Taliban members gaining inspiration from the gains maid by IS in both Iraq and Syria. They regard the Taliban as traitors and have their own desires that stretch far beyond the borders of Afghanistan.
In the middle are Afghanistan’s citizens who find themselves victims from all sides. The Taliban’s focus on implementing Sharia law regardless of the impact has both all but erased women from society and left the economy in perilous state.
Can the Taliban gain control of its own borders or does it need external help? And if so, does that offer a window to gain some leverage regarding human rights in the country? Find out as we ask, Can the Taliban tackle Afghanistan’s terror problem?
Researcher: John Cossee Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Christopher Blake Editor: Tara McDermott
(Photo: Taliban fighters guard the entrance to the Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan 2021. Credit: Marcus Yam/Getty images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Love, Genessa, a brand new true crime podcast from the BBC World Service and CBC podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | It's a story about love, deceit and survival, and it's available now. |
| 0:12.0 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:18.0 | Welcome to The Inquiry. I'm Charmaine Cozier. |
| 0:21.0 | Each week, four expert witnesses, one question and an answer. |
| 0:31.0 | 2023. It's New Year's Day in Afghanistan. |
| 0:39.0 | Just before 8am, a bomb explodes by the gates of a military airport in the capital Kabul. |
| 0:45.0 | The location is protected with concrete barriers and barbed wire fences |
| 0:50.0 | that some personnel are trapped outside at a checkpoint. |
| 0:54.0 | Official numbers aren't released, but it's later confirmed that several people were killed or injured. |
| 1:03.0 | It's the latest in a series of extreme militant attacks which have intensified since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021. |
| 1:12.0 | Before that happened, the group led a deadly insurgency. Now, it's trying to crush one. |
| 1:19.0 | So this week, we're asking, can the Taliban fix its terror problem? |
| 1:28.0 | Part 1. The Return to Power |
| 1:33.0 | The Taliban is a hard-line Islamist, fundamentalist group that first arose to power in Afghanistan in 1996 and ruled for five years. |
| 1:45.0 | Dr. Madhya Afsal is a fellow in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution based in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:52.0 | It arose to power at that point after the vacuum that was left after the Soviet Afghan War of the 1980s. |
| 2:00.0 | And it essentially imposed a very repressive and regressive interpretation of Sharia law in the country, |
| 2:10.0 | you know, shutting off women from education, the right to work, and so on. |
| 2:15.0 | It also banned television, cinema, and music. |
| 2:19.0 | The Taliban strict laws and severe punishments raised human rights concerns and were widely condemned. |
| 2:25.0 | At that point, it was, you know, a country and a group that was internationally isolated, |
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