Prompt Cast
The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Assassination of Ahmad Shah Masoud
TLDR The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan was fueled by foreign support, economic collapse, and the injection of extreme Islamic ideologies, leading to the oppression of women and the establishment of a repressive regime. The assassination of Ahmad Shah Masoud, leader of the resistance against the Taliban, marked a turning point in the conflict.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
This episode of Throughline explores the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the assassination of Ahmad Shah Masoud in 2001.
06:29
This is a story about how foreign invasions and civil war and corporate economics sabotage the hopes of many Afghans for a better country, and birth the generation who wanted to turn back the clock.
12:39
The Mujahideen resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was fueled by a sense of religious and national identity, and they received support from countries like the U.S., China, France, Italy, and Iran, eventually leading to a stalemate with the Soviets.
18:25
The Mujahideen, with support from the United States and funneled through Pakistan's ISI, were able to wear down the Soviet army and force them to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989, creating a complicated relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan's armed fighters.
23:36
The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan was fueled by the support of foreign fighters, including Osama bin Laden, as well as the injection of extreme Islamic ideologies like Wahhabism and Diobundism into the education system.
29:21
The Afghan Civil War created a power vacuum and economic collapse, while the fall of the Soviet Union and the interest in transporting natural resources through Afghanistan attracted global attention and the need for a stable government, leading to the rise of the Taliban.
34:26
In 1994, a group of young men emerged in Afghanistan, who were initially volunteers to fight the Soviet occupation and later became known as the Taliban, aiming to rid the country of instability, violence, and warlords, and they gained control of Kandahar City, catching the attention of Pakistan's intelligence service.
40:59
With Pakistan's military and financial support, the Taliban was able to gain control of Afghanistan by 1996, implementing extreme laws and oppressing women, while receiving support from countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and even the United States.
46:35
The US wanted diplomatic relations with the Taliban in order to negotiate building a pipeline through Afghanistan, but when an economic crisis hit in 1997 and the pipeline project became unviable, the US shifted its stance and began publicly criticizing the Taliban for human rights violations and oppression of women.
52:17
The Panjshir Valley served as a redoubt for Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Northern Alliance, who resisted the Taliban from 1996 until Massoud's assassination in 2001, and later, when the Taliban retook control of most of the country, a new resistance formed in the Panjshir Valley under the leadership of Massoud's son.
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