The origins of the Taliban

Twenty years after they were ousted from Kabul, the Taliban are now back in control of most of Afghanistan. In this episode, two Afghan experts trace the origins of the Taliban back to the late 1970s, and explain what's happened to the group over the past two decades.

Featuring Ali A Olomi, assistant professor of history at Penn State Abington in the US and Niamatullah Ibrahimi, lecturer in international relations at La Trobe University in Australia.

And Lee-Anne Goodman, politics editor at The Conversation in Toronto, commends some further reading on what the Taliban takeover means for Afghans. 

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

• The Taliban wants the world’s trust. To achieve this, it will need to make some difficult choices, by Niamatullah Ibrahimi, La Trobe University and Safiullah Taye, Deakin University
• The world must not look away as the Taliban sexually enslaves women and girls, by Vrinda Narain, McGill University
• Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley: the last stronghold of resistance to Taliban rule, by Kaweh Kerami, SOAS, University of London
• The Taliban may have access to the biometric data of civilians who helped the U.S. military, by Lucia Nalbandian, Ryerson University
• Taliban’s religious ideology – Deobandi Islam – has roots in colonial India, by Sohel Rana, Indiana University and Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University