No religion in the world taught hatred, envy, jealousy, or told anyone to kill innocent people. It is us, humans, who decided to mold religion into a tool to usher in a new era where we want our religion to be supreme and be followed by the majority at any cost.
One of the biggest threats to any country is religion dominating its political, administrative, legislative, and economic spheres. The biggest example of this in front of us is Afghanistan, a land that great kings found difficult to occupy; a land known for its great terrain, mountains, lakes, and strong-built Afghani soldiers known for their bravery throughout history.
Afghanistan is known as a “safe heaven” and the birthplace of the Taliban, a militant group, made by the USA to be used by it to fight against its enemies.
Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Haqqanis are the jihadist groups worldwide. They are a part of the same ideological group, though working under different names. Their main aim is to draw terror into common people’s minds and suppress them in the name of religion.
The USA raised these militant terrorist groups, but it did not know then that they would provide sanctuary to its attackers – the 9/11 world trade center attack. And in retaliation USA killed the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, who was the real mastermind of the attack. After that, the USA established a base in Afghanistan to eliminate terrorist organizations in Afghanistan.
So a tussle for power between Talibanes on one side and USA troops and the Afghan army to stop these militant attacks took place.
Taliban attacks didn’t stop after 9/11 and even took a harsher turn. In October 2012, a schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, was shot on her way back home from school in Mingora. Then happened the Peshawar school massacre in which innocent children, teachers lost their lives.
After spending nearly $2 trillion for almost 20 years, the USA decided to end all this and brought back its troops by 30th August 2021, as the President of the USA believed that now Afghanistan army was competent enough to fight against the Taliban.
On August 15, after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the Taliban leaders took over the presidential palace within few hours. Thousands of people rushed to the country’s borders, the airport in the hope of flying away. Taliban took over the government and hence started the era of Taliban in Afghanistan; where there is no government, democracy but a country ruled by some fanatic, religiously blinded people with the power of arms and ammunition. Where the people can’t express themselves, women can’t drive, move out of their house alone, or even study.
It is reminiscent of an era we know of only through Khaled Hosseini’s novels where women were brutally raped and stoned to death on suspicion of infidelity. Women were only slaves to men and were subjected to be seen as an item or a machine to reproduce man. Even while reading his novels, we cried and had goosebumps; imagine the women staying there have to face such brutality every day. It just shatters our soul. No one could have ever have thought that in the 21st century, we had to witness this all.
The Taliban have made their government. The most wanted terrorists are the ministers, and all the country’s of the world, including India, are now accepting its government. Instead of having a global meet at UNSC and sending troops to wipe them out completely, they will shortly be sending representatives to various global summits.
Impact Of This Era:
This era is a direct threat to India, and it could not have chosen a far better time to emerge since we are facing a drastic downfall in GDP growth rate, widespread COVID-19 pandemic. Pakistan is an ally of Afghanistan, and it is believed that it’s already giving shelter to Talibanese; the days are not far that they will start coming to India in search of new land. And if China collaborates with them just to increase their profits by expanding their belt and road initiative, it will add another roadblock in our way. Hence, we need to be more conscious of our borders to protect our nation.
This era of the Taliban will only bring destruction, devastation, and fear in the minds of people. And the only time to end it is to take action now with the help of global pressure to prevent it from further spreading and eliminating it from its roots; before they make all country’s regret accepting the Taliban government.
We have to understand that rising above our own country’s interest, that is a global threat. All the countries have to step in boots to prevent this uprising before this era drains all nations with themselves into a deep hole from which we all can’t come out.
Till then, we all can pray and hope that women, children, and the common people of Afghanistan, fight against this era and form a democratic government that can rule their country. All the nations must get together to help the people of Afghanistan prevent the menace of Taliban rule and end their era in Afghanistan.
