Taliban's War Against Neo-Colonialism

The Taliban is a group located in Afghanistan with the aim to bring back Sharia law along with their local Pashtun content. With the US installing a puppet ruler in Afghanistan in 2002 (The beginning of the war on terror, something which is problematic, as Barkawi mentions), the Taliban fought against the US forces, which led to many casualties, and after decades of struggle, signed an agreement with the US to take control of the Afghan nation. The US, with the idea of 'freeing' the people of Afghanistan, infiltrated a nation (Barkawi, 2004). However, the idea of freedom depends on how the people of Afghanistan conceive it. This is where inside and outside history come into play. What we know of history is mostly outside (classifying and collecting the events and drawing inferences from them) but not the inside (the thought process of people making the decisions and understanding of the relationship of the structures within which they lived. This gives meaning to the event) which is very important (Schouten, 2009). The acts of violence, or 'terror' as the West terms it, is a repercussion of colonialism, and when the US carries out such attacks, then it is for freeing the people and, therefore, seen as 'fair' by the Western narrative. How would people without the resources compete with the US in fighting war? They resort to attacks like suicide bombing, which the West again refers to as 'cowardly' and an 'act of terror' (Barkawi, 2004). 

With the rising influence of America across the world, globalization was inevitable, and with globalization came the Western principles of liberty and freedom. However, is it necessary to force a nation to modernize them? To take the white man's burden to civilize them? To bring them under the international structure? To take away their tradition from them? Leaving aside all the notions and assumptions, if we look at what the US did in Afghanistan and countless other places, it was to take away the rights of the native people and try to imbibe Western ideals without consulting with the people who were the native inhabitants of the land. With the Taliban's war on neo-colonialism, many other groups took inspiration to take control of their land and not let any white man forcefully civilize them. 

We should also note that with the imposition of Sharia law after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, women's rights were taken away, their right to education, and even their right to move freely outside of their homes were taken away. We should also look at it practically and apply Robert Cox's problem-solving theory; we would need to consider only the existing structures and neo-colonizing nation, acting on the war on terror and costing countless lives even after the 'Vietnam dilemma' was something the US could have avoided. A slow transition towards being progressive might have been something the US could have tried and hand the power to the natives of the land quicker. Also, the US often tries to mask its war on terror by bringing humanitarian issues (Barkawi, 2004) to the top, something the Taliban did not like. 

Analyzing the issue was important because we see a mixed picture in Afghanistan where we have the post-colonial theories to be implemented because of the actions done by the US, but looking at it from the feminist perspective gives us a different view. We can only hope that the Taliban follows a progressive path like Saudi Arabia (which is also ruled by Sharia) and give more rights to women.

Bibliography 

1. Schouten, P. (n.d.). Theory talk #37: Robert cox. Retrieved March 18, 2024, from http://www.theory-talks.org/2010/03/theory-talk-37.html
   

2. Barkawi, T. (2004). On the Pedagogy of “Small Wars.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 80(1), 19–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3569291