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- Photos paint a stark picture of Afghanistan before and after the Taliban took over and the US withdrew troops
Photos paint a stark picture of Afghanistan before and after the Taliban took over and the US withdrew troops
Erin Snodgrass,Isabella Zavarise
- The Taliban seized Kabul on August 15, 2021, and the US military fully withdrew by the end of the month.
- Since the takeover, women's rights have been decimated throughout the country, while children starve.
Life in Afghanistan this month looks starkly different than it did just one year prior.
It's been a year since the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021. The US-backed Afghan government collapsed in a matter of days, and after 20 years in the country, the US withdrew its military presence ending America's longest war.
After reclaiming power, the Taliban vowed to usher in a more moderate era than Afghanistan saw the last time the group controlled the country prior to 9/11. Thus far, however, the group's promise has been left unfulfilled, with increasing crackdowns on women's rights, freedom of the press, and religious freedoms.
Nearly 100% of Afghans are expected to fall below the global poverty line before the year concludes, according to NBC News, and some have resorted to selling their organs or children in a desperate attempt to survive the new regime. In just one year, the already-poor, war-ravaged country has deteriorated even further under the thumb of the extremist Taliban.
Photos from the years before the takeover compared to more recent pictures of modern-day life in Afghanistan paint a grim picture.
While women's rights were tenuous in Afghanistan even before the Taliban takeover, many enjoyed access to schooling.
No girls attended formal school when the Taliban last controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s before 9/11, and only about one million boys were enrolled in 2001, according to The BBC.
But in the ensuing years, increased educational opportunities were often cited as a major success in the country. By 2012, out of 7.8 million students, nearly 3 million were female, according to the World Bank.
Dropout rates among female students remained high in the country's secondary schools, and the adult literacy rate frequently ranked among the lowest in the world.
Nevertheless, opportunities for women and young girls were on the up-and-up.
But in the year since the Taliban took over, older girls have been stripped of their access to education, forced to attend secret schools where they can.
Almost immediately, the Taliban shut down schools for female students over the 6th grade, stripping older girls of their access to education.
Taliban officials have claimed the bar is only temporary, but the ban brings back memories of a pre-2001 lockdown on female education.
In light of the ban, secret schools have emerged across the country, offering hope — and risk — for the girls who wish to continue pursuing an education. The schools in practice are varied, The Guardian reported earlier this month. Some are private schools, some operate online, and others are even more improvised.
The Taliban is cracking down on women's rights across the whole country. Earlier this year, the group announced that female TV news anchors would be forced to cover their faces during broadcasts as part of larger rules requiring all women in the country to be covered head to toe.
Female journalists immediately following the takeover described receiving threatening calls from the Taliban — a group known for its hostility toward both women and the free press.
The Taliban has since introduced a list of 11 journalism rules that reporters must now follow, which warn against broadcasting anything that is "contrary to Islam" or involves national security.
One day after the Taliban announced the new order, female presenters at some of the country's top stations defied the law by showing their faces.
A social media campaign called #FreeHerFace emerged after male anchors at several outlets, including TOLOnews and 1TVNews, wore face coverings during their broadcasts.
The women have since returned to covering their faces while working.
The quality of life for Afghanistan's children, while always harsh, has become downright bleak in the year since the Taliban's takeover.
Here, young kids make a playground of destroyed military vehicles, a reminder of the country's war-torn past.
On the roads outside Ghazni, remnants of destroyed American armored vehicles remain. When the US withdrew from the country, it left $7 billion worth of military equipment. Among the items left behind were aircraft worth $923 million and $6.5 million in artillery.
Food insecurity among children has also increased substantially since 2014.
Economic and security challenges in the country, as well as droughts and flooding, have led to persistent food insecurity in Afghanistan.
UNICEF found that Afghanistan has a 41% rate of stunting, or impaired growth and development in children under five.
But the collapse of the economy and the freezing of Afghan and donor funds following the Taliban takeover has created an even worse humanitarian crisis.
Nearly 10 million children are going hungry every day.
The UN reported this year that 95% of Afghans are not getting enough to eat, with that number rising to almost 100% in female-headed households.
Following the withdrawal last year, the United Nations' development agency said Afghanistan is heading toward "universal poverty."
Day-to-day life in Afghanistan looks different. In 2021, the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha fell at a perilous time for the country as foreign forces withdrew after 20 years.
On the first day of Eid al-Adha 2021, three rockets landed near the Presidential Palace, where President Ashraf Ghani and others were marking the start of the Muslim festival. No one was injured according to The Associated Press, but it served as a harbinger of the unrest soon to come.
Taliban soldiers loomed over this year's Eid celebrations.
Three short years ago, Afghan Muslims celebrated the holiday with hugs and prayers at Shah-e-Do Shamshira mosque in Kabul.
Eid al-Adha is a religious holiday which in Arabic means the "festival of the sacrifice." The festival marks the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
But at the same mosque, on the same holiday this year, armed Taliban fighters oversaw the celebration.
In the two weeks leading up to the start of Eid in 2022, violent terrorist attacks occurred at mosques, schools, and public gatherings, according to The New York Times. These attacks killed at least 100 people, most of whom were Afghan Shiites.
Once-familiar landmarks throughout the country have been co-opted by the Taliban, as well. The Presidential Palace in Kabul was once home to international diplomats and heads of state.
But Taliban fighters took control of the Presidential Palace in August 2021, prompting then-President Ashraf Ghani to flee. The building, known as The Arg, is now guarded by the group.
Life under Taliban rule has grown grim. But Afghans aren't giving up. A few days before the Taliban's anniversary of returning to power, women marched in Kabul, chanting 'bread, work, and freedom.'
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