Taliban

In the languages spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Taliban (also Taleban) means those who study the book (the Qur'an). It is derived from the Arabic word for seeker or student, talib. The word is almost exclusively used to refer to a fundamentalist Islamist movement which rules the southern, mainly Pashtun, region of Afghanistan and is currently in a civil war with the Northern Alliance.

It started as a reform movement in response to the chaos of the Mujahedeen rule after the overthrow of the Soviet occupation forces in 1989. The movement was characterized by young, educated fundamentalist Muslims who decried the inability of the Mujahedeen leaders to keep open fighting and disorder from ruling the day. Most Taliban are members of the Pashtun ethnic group of southern Afghanistan.

After a civil war and with considerable support by the Pakistani intelligence agency I.S.I., the Taliban established a government in 1996 which at its height was recognised by Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and controlled all of Afghanistan apart from small regions in the northeast.

On 22 September 2001, the United Arab Emirates and later Saudi Arabia withdrew their recognition because of the Taliban's refusal to hand over Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden. The Taliban are allied with bin Laden, who had joined the mujahadeen effort against the Soviet Union.

The Taliban practice a severe form of Deobandi movement of Islam. This has similarities to the Wahhabi branch of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia although the Taliban have taken it to extremes.

The Taliban is decried by many in the country and around the world community as oppressive. While they may have led to reform of government, the replacement government had no experience, and most appointed local leaders have no education and are barely literate.

On the other hand, some in the United States have been lenient on the human rights abuses by the Taliban because they have been more likely to cooperate in talks, and take action against drugs, than previous Afghan regimes. The Taliban did initially start out with much popular support, and they were responsible for dismantling the Mujahedeen warlord network across the unstable country.

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is a group of women inside Afghanistan who attempt to document and minimize the damage caused to women by the Taliban. They educate women against the Taliban laws, and smuggle videotape of Taliban atrocities out to the rest of the world. RAWA is also concerned that replacing the Taliban with the Northern Alliance would not be much of an improvement, as the Alliance also has a history of violence against and oppression of women.