Taliban Rule in Afghanistan: Five Years of Religious Persecution, Gender Apartheid, Information Control, and Economic Collapse
Last Updated: August 08, 2026 Nearly five years after reclaiming power in August 2021, the Taliban regime has transformed Afghanistan into a state defined by ideological control, social exclusion, and institutional repression. Rather than focusing on national reconstruction after decades of war, the Taliban has prioritized the restructuring of Afghan society according to its own rigid interpretation of religion and governance. Since returning to power, the regime has systematically targeted religious minorities, particularly Afghanistan’s Shiite communities , while imposing one of the world’s most restrictive systems of control over Afghan women and girls . At the same time, it has expanded censorship, limited access to information and technology, weakened educational institutions, and failed to deliver meaningful economic recovery for a population facing poverty and humanitarian dependency. The result is a political system built less on public legitimacy and effective governance ...