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Taleban ("the
Seekers")
The Taleban ("the Seekers")
was formed in September of 1994 in the southern Afghan province of
Kandahar by a group of graduates of Pakistani Islamic colleges (madrassas)
on the border with Afghanistan, run by the fundamentalist
Jamiat-e-Ulema. The members of the Taleban Islamic Movement of
Afghanistan (TIMA) were mostly Pashtuns from Kandahar in Southern
Afghanistan and were led by a mullah (a village-level religious
leader), Mohammad Omar. The Taleban advocated an ‘Islamic
Revolution’ in Afghanistan, proclaiming that the unity of
Afghanistan should be re-established in the framework of Sharia
(Islamic law) and without the mujahedin.
Their fighting ranks were mostly
filled with former veterans of the war against Soviet forces. On 11
September 1996 the Taleban captured Jalalabad, the eastern city
bordering Pakistan and on 27 September 1996 they captured Kabul,
ousting the government. They took former President Najibullah and his
brother from a UN compound where they had taken refuge since the fall
of his Soviet-backed government in April 1992, beat them severely and
then hanged them from lamposts in the city center. At the beginning of
June 1997, the Taleban effectively controled two-thirds of the
country. At the end of 2001, they were toppled in Operation Enduring
Freedom.
The Taleban applied a strict
interpretation of Sharia, enforcement of which was administered by the
"Department for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice." In
Kabul soldiers searched homes for evidence of cooperation with the
former authorities or for violations of Taleban religious-based
decrees, including depictions of living things (photographs, stuffed
toys, etc.) Individuals were beaten on the streets by Taleban militia
for what were deemed infractions of Taliban rules concerning dress,
hair length, and facial hair, as well as for restriction on women
being in the company of men.
The Taleban required women to wear
strict Islamic garb in public, and Taleban gender restrictions
interfered with the delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance to
women and girls. According to regulations, a man who shaved or cut his
beard could be imprisoned until his beard grows back. Beards were to
protrude farther than would a fist clamped at the base of the chin.
The country was effectively
partitioned between areas controlled by Pashtun and non-Pashtun
forces, as the Taleban controlled all the predominantly Pashtun areas
of the country (as well as Herat and Kabul), while non-Pashtun
organizations controlled the areas bordering on the Central Asian
republics whose populations are ethnically non-Pashtun, such as Uzbeks
and Tajiks.
In October 1997 the Taliban changed
the name of the country to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with
Mullah Omar, who had previously assumed the religious title of Emir of
the Faithful, as head of state. There was a six-member ruling council
in Kabul but ultimate authority for Taliban rule rested in the
Taliban's inner Shura (Council), located in the southern city of
Kandahar, and in Mullah Omar. |
