US-Trained Afghan Army went up in thin air

[pieter]

Ghost Soldiers, Corrupt Regime: US-Trained Afghan Army Was Stronger Than Taliban... Only On Paper

Ever since US announced withdrawal of troop, Taliban went on a rampage to seize one district after another. A Taliban spokesperson asserted that most of these provinces were seized by them without a battle. Taliban’s rapid advance made clear that US efforts to turn Afghan military into a robust, independent fighting force have failed.

Built over 20 years, how did Afghan army collapse? Why did Afghan forces not resist Taliban? How did Kabul fall despite the well trained Afghan army?

[pieter]

Afghan militias were forced to fight Taliban blame America's 'abandonment'

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As the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan neared its completion, the Afghan army was quickly losing ground throughout the country to the Taliban. To bolster its military, the government was arming militias to help in the fight. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson traveled to two provinces near the capital — Parwan and Logar — in july 2021 to meet militia men who have Afghan leaders worried about a new civil war.

[Jaga]

Pieter and all,

I am also saddened to see that Afghani women would not have any rights anymore. They were trying to fight it and it became violent.

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/09/04/asia/afghanistan-saturday-intl/index.html

A small group of Afghan women braved the Taliban-controlled streets of Kabul once more on Saturday to demand equal rights and the ability to participate in government, CNN has confirmed.

In a bold public challenge to the militant group's rule, female activists have staged at least three small demonstrations across the country in the past week.

Footage shared by Afghan news network TOLO news Saturday showed a confrontation between Taliban guards and some of the women. In the video, a man on a megaphone is heard telling the small crowd "we will pass your message to the elders." His voice appears to be calm. But towards the end of the video, women can be heard screaming, with one activist saying "why are you hitting us?"

Violence reportedly broke out after Taliban forces prevented the women from marching on to the presidential palace, according to TOLO, which reported the use of tear gas on protesters.

[pieter]

Jaga,

It shows the medieval, dark and sinister nature of this regime which sadly receives massive support from Pakistan. Pakistan’s army Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) has backed the Taliban since the group’s origin in the mid-1990s. Under intense pressure in September 2001, the ISI briefly removed its experts and assistance, creating the same panic and flight to the Taliban that the U.S. withdrawal just did to the Afghan army. But the ISI quickly renewed its support and that aid continues today.

Pakistani aid went far beyond sanctuary and safe haven for the leadership and cadres and their families — it included training, arms, experts, and help in fundraising, especially in the Gulf states. On occasion, Pakistani advisers accompanied the Taliban on missions inside Afghanistan.

It is fair to assume that the ISI helped the Taliban plan its blitzkrieg this summer. The Taliban’s seizing of the north reflected memories of its enemies using bases there in the late 1990s to resist the Taliban and the CIA using those facilities to bring down the Taliban in 2001. The plan also prioritized seizing border crossings, especially in the west, which kept Iran from providing aid to its Shiite Hazara allies in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Taliban are virulently anti-Shiite. There have already been incidents of violence. That will increase sectarian tension in Pakistan which has a much larger Shiite population than Afghanistan.


An Afghan protester screams near the scene of a suicide attack that targeted crowds of minority Shiite Hazaras during a demonstration in Kabul on Saturday, July 23, 2016.

At 10 am on 8 August 1998, the Taliban entered the Afghan city Mazar-i-Sharif in the North of Afghanistan at the border of Uzbekistan. For the next two days drove their pickup trucks "up and down the narrow streets of Mazar-i-Sharif shooting to the left and right and killing everything that moved—shop owners, cart pullers, women and children shoppers and even goats and donkeys." More than 8,000 noncombatants were reportedly killed in Mazar-i-Sharif and later in Bamiyan. In addition, the Taliban were criticized for forbidding anyone from burying the corpses for the first six days (contrary to the injunctions of Islam, which demands immediate burial) while the remains rotted in the summer heat and were eaten by dogs. During these killings up to 20,000 Shia Muslim Hazara were systematically executed across the city. The Taliban went door to door of Hazara households searching for combat age males, shooting them and slitting their throats right in front of their families. Hazaras were shoved into trailers where they suffocated to death or died of heat strokes, and were later dumped into piles in the middle of the desert. The Taliban randomly shot anti-aircraft weapons at civilians into the middle of the city; causing drivers to swerve out of control and run people over. Human rights organizations reported that the dead were lying on the streets for weeks before the Taliban allowed their burial due to stench and fear of epidemics. Niamatullah Ibrahimi described the killings as "an act of genocide at full ferocity."



During its 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan, the in majority Pashtun based Taliban was considered notorious internationally for its misogyny and violence against women. Its stated motive was to create a "secure environment where the chasteness and dignity of women may once again be sacrosanct", reportedly based on Pashtunwali beliefs about living in purdah. Since the Taliban seized most of Afghanistan in 2021, there are many concerns.

Pardah or purdah (from Persian: پرده‎, meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that women cover their bodies so as to cover their skin and conceal their form. A woman who practices purdah can be referred to as pardanashin or purdahnishan. The term purdah is sometimes applied to similar practices in other parts of the world.

Practices that restricted women's mobility and behavior existed in India since ancient times and intensified with the arrival of Islam. By the 19th century purdah became customary among Hindu elites. Purdah was not traditionally observed by lower-class women.

Physical segregation within buildings is achieved with judicious use of walls, curtains, and screens. A woman's withdrawal into purdah usually restricts her personal, social and economic activities outside her home. The usual purdah garment worn is a burqa, which may or may not include a yashmak, a veil to conceal the face. The eyes may or may not be exposed.

Purdah was rigorously observed under the Taliban in Afghanistan, where women had to observe complete purdah at all times when they were in public. Only close male family members and other women were allowed to see them out of purdah. In other societies, purdah is often only practised during certain times of religious significance.

Married Hindu women in parts of Northern India observe purdah, with some women wearing a ghoonghat in the presence of older male relations on their husbands' side; some Muslim women observe purdah through the wearing of a burqa. A dupatta is a veil used by both Muslim and Hindu women, often when entering a religious house of worship. This custom is not followed by Hindu women elsewhere in India.

Pieter

Link: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdah

[pieter]

Sept 4, 2021 21:06:10 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Pieter and all,

I am also saddened to see that Afghani women would not have any rights anymore. They were trying to fight it and it became violent.

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/09/04/asia/afghanistan-saturday-intl/index.html

A small group of Afghan women braved the Taliban-controlled streets of Kabul once more on Saturday to demand equal rights and the ability to participate in government, CNN has confirmed.

In a bold public challenge to the militant group's rule, female activists have staged at least three small demonstrations across the country in the past week.

Footage shared by Afghan news network TOLO news Saturday showed a confrontation between Taliban guards and some of the women. In the video, a man on a megaphone is heard telling the small crowd "we will pass your message to the elders." His voice appears to be calm. But towards the end of the video, women can be heard screaming, with one activist saying "why are you hitting us?"

Violence reportedly broke out after Taliban forces prevented the women from marching on to the presidential palace, according to TOLO, which reported the use of tear gas on protesters.

Jaga,

A regime, political party, tribe, people and country that treats women and girls like the Taliban is backward. It will backlash at society, because if you oppress half of the population your country will be backward and primitive and will stay backward and primitive.

The same counts for other religious communities, countries and regions which treat women as second class citizens, which are mysogynist, medieval in mentality and do not belong to the modern civilized world.

Cheers,
Pieter