What is the Taliban?

Question

Of course, I know what it is, but it is very very hard to find a good history of it or a really clear statement of its aims and methods. I am just the wrong age - too old to learn about it in history and too young to be aware of its origins in current events. Can someone give me a clear paragraph or two of background about it please?

Answer 1

It's when your Mum and Dad ban you from watching the telly.  

Answer 2

The Taliban started in Pakistan but infiltrated into Afghanistan, they are Islamic Extremists and very nationalist. They ruled Afghanistan for a while until they backed Osama and his attacks on American soil. They were actually liked over there by Afghanistan general population.

Answer 3

The Taliban initially enjoyed enormous good will from Afghans weary of the corruption, brutality, and incessant fighting of Mujahideen warlords. Two contrasting narratives explain the beginnings of the Taliban.[10] One is that the rape and murder of boys and girls from a family traveling to Kandahar or a similar outrage by Mujahideen bandits sparked Mullah Omar and his students to vow to rid Afghanistan of these criminals.[11] The other is that the Pakistan-based truck shipping mafia known as the "Afghanistan Transit Trade" and their allies in the Pakistan government, trained, armed, and financed the Taliban to clear the southern road across Afghanistan to the Central Asian Republics of extortionate bandit gangs.[12]

Alhough there is no evidence that the CIA directly supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda, some basis for military support of the Taliban was provided when, in the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence Agency) provided arms to Afghans resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the ISI assisted the process of gathering radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviets. Osama Bin Laden was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. The U.S. poured funds and arms into Afghanistan, and "by 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war."[13]

The Taliban were based in the Helmand, Kandahar, and Uruzgan regions and were overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtuns and predominantly Durrani Pashtuns. They received training and arms from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern countries recruited by the U.S. to thwart the Soviet invasion of this region.

The first major military activity of the Taliban was in October-November 1994 when they marched from Maiwand in southern Afghanistan to capture Kandahar City and the surrounding provinces, losing only a few dozen men.[14] Starting with the capture of a border crossing and a huge ammunition dump from warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a few weeks later they freed "a convoy trying to open a trade route from Pakistan to Central Asia" from another group of warlords attempting to extort money.[15] In the next three months this hitherto "unknown force" took control of twelve of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, with Mujahideen warlords often surrendering to them without a fight and the "heavily armed population" giving up their weapons.[16] By September 1996 they had captured Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

Answer 4

its not being able to watch gorgeously decadent western programmes...

silly me! thats a telly-ban, isnt it..!?  

Answer 5

they are religious extremists

they have no regard for women and treat them like sh**

these fanatics would like to have a population submissive and primitive and keep them that way by buying the latest weapons

they have much support among the ill educated in the border regions of pakistan

Answer 6

They were freedom fighters in Afghanistan when the Russians were there and were supported by us and the yanks.

Now that we are there they are insurgents and terrorist !

Funny old world - bit like Iraq and Iran history !!

Answer 7

Taliban are a bunch of guysd who believe in treating women and girls in the most appalling manner. So half the Afghan population may lke them, but that would be the male half. Their attitude to women makes Gary Glitter look like no problem. I have seen a video clip of a terrified Afghan girl on U tube complaining about the domestic violence she suffered from at the hands of HER HUSBAND. SHE WAS 12 YEARS OLD!!!!!

Answer 8

its a type of head gear Sikhs wear