Name: Geng Yali Student ID：s07353
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year
 
Abstract:
After 11 September 2001, Taliban became the most notorious name. it always equals with the “terrorism”. But reviewing the history, we may find that Taliban was seen as savior for Afghan when it was birthed. This paper is a concise depiction of the Taliban’s politics, economic and social presence in Afghanistan, in order to find the factors --- Immature leadership and the extreme ideology of Islam --which hedged the developing of Afghanistan and brought the Taliban went to the extremist and failed finally.
Key words: Taliban,  Islam,  Afghanistan
 
INTRODUCTION:
After the fall of the communist government in Afghanistan, which set up when Soviets was driven out of Afghanistan in 1989. The resistance entered a new stage if struggle, attempting to seize power on a national level. At once, the afghan society reached boiling point, playing havoc with the lives of thousands for almost five years. This chaos culminated in the rise of the Taliban, a turning point, which accounted for the defeat and disarming of many warlords.(Nabi Misdaq, 2006:168)
Although almost all of the western world condemned the Taliban’s political agenda and military performance and although so many Muslim indicated indignation and displeasure about so-called anti-Islamic behavior of the Taliban, nevertheless, there were a large number of Muslims who considered the Taliban’s administration as an embodiment of Islamic law and politics. (M.J.Gohari,2000:) The Taliban first took the world by surprise through their vigorous and victorious appearance on battlefronts and then through their tenacious attachment to their own brand of fundamentalist Islam that generated dramatic results. These included the exclusion of women from education and persecution of individuals under various charges of defiance. Yet the Taliban got failed 6-years later.
 The Taliban are usually seen as a religious force attempting to impose their ideas and ideals by force. But what are those ideas and ideals? This is a question that fall into the heart of the Taliban’s theological creed. The creed is based on Koran, and involved with aspects of society - individual rights, education, economic, gender and so on.
This is an important issue due to the fact that they – in their aspiration’s and understanding of Islam- echo a part of Islam that has long become a matter of heated dispute and controversy both inside the Islamic religion and outside it. While this paper is a concise depiction of the Taliban’s politics, economic and social presence in Afghanistan. From what the Taliban did to their people to see the seed of radicalism which rooted in Taliban’s developing and pushed the Taliban went to the extremist and failed finally.
At the very beginning, the brief history about Afghanistan must be introduced for knowing the Taliban well, which is main focus on period of the raise of the Taliban.
The polity, economy and society are listed and discussed one by one as follow.
 
1.HISTORY:
Afghanistan has been in the limelight since the soviet invasion in December 1999 when it became a geopolitical issue in the cold war between the Soviet Union and the USA. Both superpowers fought their proxy war at costly expense to the Afghans. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union(1991), the US abandoned Afghanistan. The ten-year war and national uprising against the soviet and local communist forces thus turned into an on-going twelve-year civil war fought on ethnic, linguistic and religious grounds. (Nabi Misdaq, 2006)
The Taliban’s appearance on the scene in 1994 and their spectacular successes in taking over 90 percent of the country in four years are mainly due to the state of anarchy and lawlessness that had prevailed in the country. People were exhausted of war and the uncertainties of everyday life. The Taliban pledged to restore law and order by removing the warlords ‘who soiled the name of jihad’ and had inflicted wounds on the people. True to their promise they defeats warlord after warlord and collected millions of arms, making it an offence for individuals to carry or to own arms ( Nick B. Mills,2007).
The name “Taliban” is derived from the Arabic word talib, which means a student or one who seeks. In Arabic taliban means two student. The word talib in Arabic is not used strictly for religious students. In fact, it is used for students at all levels, including those who study in university. In Pashtu[1] and dari (farsi[2]), the two official languages of Afghanistan, taliban is a plural form of talib. It strictly refers to those who seek religious (Islamic) scholarship in traditional circles of learning in deeni madaris (Islamic schools or madrassas), part time or full time. The students in theological and Islamic studies in modern universities are not called talib.[3]
Since their dramatic and sudden appearance, the Taliban had brought relative peace and security to Kandahar and neighboring provinces. They were based in the Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan regions, and were overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtuns and predominantly Durrani Pashtuns. In applying the rules of Shari’ah law, they chopped off thieves’ hands, highwaymen’s legs and flogged sexual offenders. All this had appositive effect on the lives of ordinary people, in the sense that theft, murder and other crimes were drastically reduced, though at the cost of several restrictions that changed life drastically for many Afghans, especially those in more progressive, urban dwellings.
Taliban’s occupation of nearly all of warlord centres in less than four years ‘marked the most dramatic shift of forces in Afghanistan’s recent history. Their rise to power spoke volumes for the bankruptcy of their Mujahideen[4] foes and the exhaustion of the population eager for peace’ (Davis,1998:43). On the other hand in the 95 percent area under Taliban control, the general public complained of the lack of education, especially secondary schooling and above foe girls. They also complained of economic problems and unemployment, but they were not native enough to point the finger at the Taliban’s abuse of Islamic edicts or accuse them of lavish living and corruption, which was what the Mujahideen leadership were accused of.
The Taliban movement represents first of all a new demonstration of the Islamic faith. The Taliban perpetually announced that they were fighting merely for the word of Islam to remain transcendent. However, at the same time they emphasized that their first task was to purify the country form the stains of hypocrisy that manifested themselves in the so-called Mujahideen. Mujahideen internal conflicts, which inflicted heavy damages and huge suffering on Afghanistan, provided the Taliban with a golden chance to verify their claim over the corruption and hypocrisy of their opponents.[5]
After 11 September 2001, USA invades into Afghanistan. November 13 the Taliban had withdrawn from both Kabul and Jalalabad. Finally, in early December, the Taliban gave up their last city stronghold of Kandahar and retired to the hilly wilderness along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they remain today as a guerrilla warfare operation, drawing new recruits and developing plans for a restoration of power. [6]
 
2. GOVERNMENT
2.1 Party
Many Afghans were also impressed by the fact that initially the Taliban did not demand power for themselves. Instead they insisted they were restoring law and order, only to hand over power to government which was made up of good Muslims. However, between 1994 and the capture of Kabul in 1996, the Taliban’s decision-making process was to change and become highly centralized, secretive, dictatorial and inaccessible. Among this the Taliban lost a part of trophy, furthermore stride a step to fall.
The party functionaries were generally Pushtuns, poor and of rural origin, with no education except what they had receives in the madras as.(Gilles Dorronsoro, )More worse, The Taliban broke with tradition and appointed outsiders. In the past the governors and senior local officials were usually drawn from the local elite, reflecting the local ethnic make-up of the population. But in 1998, of 11 governors only four were known by peoples. they violate the tradition, and this could lose the people’s trust.
There is no educated or professional class left in the country. (the part 4 will mainly discuss the education.) In the several waves of refugees that have left the cities since 1992, all the educated, trained professionals, even telephone operators, electricians and mechanics, have gone. Most of the Taliban running the departments of finance, economy(this will talked at part 3) and the social sector are mullah traders – businessmen, truck transporters and smugglers for whom the rationale of nation-building is seen only in the perspective of expanding the market for smuggling and the trucking business across the region.[7]
Even, the Taliban could not complete the annihilation of the Mujahideen Islamic government that is currently represented by the most gifted military commander, Ahmad Shah Masoud. The latter, used to be the vice-president and defense minister of the Islamic government of Afghanistan. His capability for applying all military contingencies is a well-known fact. It is reported that he was constantly being aided with intelligence flowing to him through western organizations. It is noteworthy that his excellent communication skills, together with military stands, have enabled him to establish meaningful contacts with major source of both intelligence and weaponry. (M.J.Gohari,2000:98)
2.2 Civil [...]

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