WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Taliban are a predominantly Pashtun, Islamic fundamentalist group that returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 after waging a twenty-year insurgency.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Taliban follow an ultraconservative Sunni interpretation of Islam. Yet approximately 10 to 15 percent of Afghans are Shia, and there are a significant number of Sufi, small numbers of Ahmadis, and some Hindus and Sikhs in urban areas. The Taliban have not stated that Shia or Sufi practices are forbidden.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Taliban imposed a dress code, required women to have a chaperone (mahram) to accompany them in public, and banned women and girls from public parks. In August, the media reported that 60 women university students were denied the right to leave Afghanistan because they did not have a mahram.

Detailed explanation-4: -Several officials have recently been transferred from the capital, Kabul, to Kandahar. Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada lives in the city and rarely leaves the Pashtun heartland in southern Afghanistan.

Detailed explanation-5: -Afghanistan is a multiethnic and mostly tribal society. The population of the country consists of numerous ethnolinguistic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimaq, Turkmen, Baloch, Pashai, Nuristani, Kurds, Gujjar, Arab, Brahui, Qizilbash, Pamiri, Kyrgyz, Sadat and others.