At the moment, the Taliban government does not appear up to the challenge of governing Afghanistan. And the question of the Taliban’s ability to govern carries no small amount of urgency
A man selling Taliban flags walks along a street in Kabul. Photo: Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Images Now that the Taliban have consolidated control over Afghanistan and formed an interim government, the world will soon find out whether the victorious insurgents are actually capable of running the country they have reconquered — or whether they will run it straight into the ground.
Taliban leaders have been cagey, however, about just what they mean when they say, for example, that they will respect the rights of women “within Islamic law.
Already, the new Taliban government appears to be in disarray. The group’s supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, has not been seen in public since the takeover, fueling speculation that he may be ill or dead. Abdul Ghani Baradar, the deputy prime minister, also disappeared from view earlier this month and was rumored injured or killed in a physical brawl among Taliban leaders, until he went on television last week to reassure everyone that he was alive and well.
The new government must also contend with brain drain, as the Afghans who have fled the country since the U.S withdrawal and those who continue to look for ways out are disproportionately educated people with specialized skills. Afghans who assisted the occupying U.S. and allied forces or worked for the former government or foreign aid organizations have fled or tried to flee out of fear of retribution from the Taliban.
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