Taliban fighters, during the 2021 offensive.

Taliban fighters wating to leave the Taliban, in 2010.

Taliban religious police beating a woman because she removed her Burqa in public, 2001

Taliban executing a woman in public who had been accused of murdering her husband. 1998

Armed civilians protesting against the Taliban, in 2021.

The Taliban is a large Sunni Islamic fundamentalist militant group operating in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. In 1994 it started a government in southern Afghanistan called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The Taliban governed Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. During this time, its leaders put in place the strictest forms of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world. Much criticism of the Taliban came from important Muslim scholars. For example, if a thief was caught stealing something the Taliban would cut-off one of his hands so that he does not use it to steal again, no matter what it was that he stole. Many criminals were put to death quickly and without a fair trial and were executed in public. Anyone who refused to follow the law was considered a non-Muslim enemy. Every male had to go to mosque for prayer (except Afghan non-Muslims) during praying times, which is five times per day.