Posted by 4Brianna on September 20, 2009 at 7:54pm
The Taliban are a group of Islaamic people. The name Taliban means religious students. About 17 years ago, Kabul was taken over, and the Taliban were one of the groups that were part of an alliance with mujahideen to control Afghanistan. The mujahideen is a group whose name means holy warriors. After the Soviets had control in Afghanistan from 1979-1989, they finally left and the alliance I was talking about came to power with Burhannudin Rabanni as their interim president. In 1996, the Taliban started by taking over the city Kandahar and eventually gained control of Kabul, which is the capital of Afghanistan. They had control of the country from 1996- December of 2001.Even though you may not expect this group of people to be well liked, the Afghans were glad to just finally have someone in power so it wasn't so chaotic. They had some very strict beliefs and strict understanding of the Islamic Law. They took public punishments to new levels, and had floggings and public executions, as in the image above. They did not allow people to watch TV, use the internet, or listen to music. All of these outside things were considered non-Islamic influences.A lot of people were surprised at the how much the women of Afghanistan were repressed. As soon as the Taliban came to power, women were not allowed to attend school. Then, they were banned from working, other than being a homemaker. Because a lot of women were doctors and teachers, it became a disaster. Something as simple as wearing nail polish was not allowed, and the punishment for that was having your fingertips sliced off. Apparently, this was all to protect women and their honor.The Taliban are the ones who were behind the September 11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. then came over in December of 2001 and forced them out of power. The Taliban are still a very big threat today in the middle east, and I really hope President Obama has our troops over there until the job is done.
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