History of the Taliban: Who They Are, What They Want

The Taliban's Repressions and Regressions: A War on Women

Where the Buddhist colossus once stood, withstanding the barbarism of Genegis Khan and that of invaders before and since--until the Taliban demolished it in February-March 2001.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

In 1994, Osama bin Laden moved to Kandahar as a guest of Mullah Omar. On Aug. 23, 1996, bin Laden declared war on the United States and exerted increasing influence on Omar, helping to fund the Taliban’s offensives against other warlords in the north of the country. That lavish financial support made it impossible for Mullah Omar not to protect bin Laden when Saudi Arabia, then the United States, pressured the Taliban to extradite bin Laden. The fates and ideology of al-Qaeda and the Taliban became intertwined.

At the height of their power, in March 2001, the Taliban demolished the two enormous, centuries-old Buddha statues of Bamiyan, an act that showed to the world in ways that the Taliban’s wanton massacres and oppression should have much earlier the ruthless, distorted Puritanism of the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam.

• The Taliban: An Introduction
• The Taliban's Origins
• Mullah Omar and the Taliban's Rise in Afghanistan
• Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's Intelligence Services and the Taliban
• The Taliban and the Clinton Administration
• The Taliban's Repressions and Regressions: A War on Women
• The Taliban's 2001 Downfall