A devastating earthquake underscores how the Taliban has subjected the folks of Afghanistan to struggling, whereas the muted worldwide response exhibits that even globalists, Muslim-majority nations, and authoritarian regimes are steering away from the Taliban and its assist for transnational terrorism.
Previous to the earthquake, the one authorities extending important financial assist to the Taliban was the Biden administration. In 2021, it left behind over $7 billions of {dollars}’ worth of weapons, and over its four-year time period (2021–2025) supplied an estimated $2.5–3 billion in direct support. Nonetheless, the actual complete is far increased. Testimony earlier than the Home Oversight Committee revealed that between 2021 and 2023 alone, the Biden administration gave Afghanistan $8 billion.
The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Konar province close to the Pakistan border late on August 31, 2025, killing greater than 2,200 folks and injuring hundreds. The shallow quake collapsed fragile mud-and-brick houses, wiping out whole villages and leaving over half one million folks with out shelter.
This tragedy comes amid one of many world’s worst humanitarian crises. 4 years of Taliban rule have left Afghanistan remoted, international support has dried up, and almost half the inhabitants, about 23 million, rely on help. Whereas the Taliban has appealed for assist, its alignment with authoritarian powers, assist for terrorism, and gross human rights violations have discouraged broader support and recognition.
The Taliban preserve shut ties with al-Qaeda and supply protected haven for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which continues to function from Afghan territory and perform cross-border assaults. A UN report famous, “The Taliban don’t conceive of TTP as a terrorist group: the bonds are shut, and the debt owed to TTP is critical.” Different designated terror teams have pledged allegiance to the Taliban, together with al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Jemaah Islamiyah, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and Ansar al-Sharia in Libya.
For the reason that fall of Kabul in 2021, solely Russia has formally acknowledged the Taliban as Afghanistan’s authorities. Moscow lifted its “terrorist” designation in April 2025 and formally acknowledged the regime that July. China has not granted formal recognition however accepted Taliban credentials in 2024, and Iran has additionally moved nearer, handing over the Afghan embassy in 2023 and sending its international minister to Kabul in 2025. But each Iran and Pakistan have worsened the disaster by deporting 1.9 million Afghan refugees, many compelled to stay in tents close to the borders.
Underneath Taliban rule, human rights and high quality of life, particularly for ladies, have collapsed. Almost 23 million Afghans require support: 21 million lack protected water, 14.8 million face acute meals insecurity, 14.3 million have restricted healthcare entry, and seven.8 million ladies and youngsters want diet assist. The World Meals Program warns 3.1 million Afghans are on the point of hunger, with 2.9 million already at emergency ranges.
Healthcare is collapsing. By April 2025, 439 amenities had closed on account of U.S. funding cuts, leaving three million folks with out care. Greater than 200 others have shut from extreme shortfalls, affecting two million extra. In 2023, reviews warned that over 90 % of amenities had been in danger, resulting in an estimated 4.8 million unattended pregnancies and 51,000 maternal deaths between 2021 and 2025. Toddler mortality was 43 per 1,000 in 2021, and maternal mortality 620 per 100,000 in 2020. Between mid-2024 and mid-2025, 3.5 million youngsters and 1.2 million pregnant or breastfeeding ladies are projected to undergo acute malnutrition.
The economic system has collapsed. Almost half of Afghans stay under the poverty line. Earlier than the Taliban takeover, international support made up 40 % of GDP, funded greater than half the federal government’s $6 billion funds, and lined as much as 80 % of public expenditures. Since then, this assist has vanished, leaving greater than 14 million meals insecure and almost 5 million ladies and youngsters acutely malnourished.
Repression is systematic. Within the first half of 2024, UN screens recorded almost 100 arbitrary detentions and no less than 20 circumstances of torture, concentrating on former officers, deportees, and LGBT Afghans. Corporal punishments are frequent, with no less than 147 males, 28 ladies, and 4 boys flogged in 2024, and greater than 180 folks publicly punished for adultery or homosexuality in early 2025.
Freedom of expression has disappeared. Between 2021 and 2024, UNAMA documented 336 circumstances of arbitrary arrest, torture, and intimidation of journalists. The Taliban banned stay political broadcasts, censored photographs, and detained reporters, typically with out authorized or household entry. Civil society critics additionally face harassment, together with the detention of analyst Jawed Kohistani.
Girls and women have been erased from public life. They’re banned from secondary college from age 13, excluded from universities, and denied healthcare and not using a male guardian. Almost 80 % of younger ladies between 18 and 29 are neither in schooling, employment, nor coaching. Just one in 4 ladies is working or searching for work, in comparison with almost 90 % of males, creating one of many world’s largest workforce gender gaps. The Taliban suspended ladies’s medical schooling in 2024, and UNDP estimates these restrictions price the economic system as much as $1 billion yearly.
Violence compounds repression. ISKP has carried out lethal assaults on Hazara communities, mosques, buses, and Taliban workplaces. Pakistani cross-border fireplace and airstrikes have added civilian casualties. In the meantime, the Taliban’s Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice regulation enforces strict gown and habits codes, backed by raids and checkpoints, mirroring their 1996–2001 rule. UN consultants describe this as “institutionalized persecution” which will quantity to crimes towards humanity.
The Worldwide Legal Court docket has issued arrest warrants for Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani for gender-based persecution, against the law towards humanity. The Taliban rejected the ruling, citing sovereignty and custom.
However regardless of ICC motion and repeated condemnations, the UN and the broader worldwide neighborhood have finished nothing to cease the Taliban from oppressing Afghan civilians or to drive democratic reforms, even because the regime continues supporting terrorist teams past Afghanistan’s borders.
