RACHEL HARTIGAN
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was shockingly swift. On April 14, President Biden announced that the United States would begin withdrawing forces in May, with all the troops out by September 11. By August 15, Taliban fighters were posing behind a massive desk at the presidential palace in Kabul. President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country, the government had fallen, and the Taliban had seized control.
A look at Afghan history makes this stunning turn of events less surprising. Modernization has long clashed with Islamic conservatism and, as the British and Russians can attest, attempts to occupy and subdue Afghanistan have rarely turned out as planned. The results are often tragic, especially for the people caught in the conflict.
In 1839, the British invaded Afghanistan and restored Shah Shufa to the throne as Emir of Afghanistan. He was assassinated in 1842. Britain tried to annex Afghanistan three times to block Russian expansion and protect its colonial interests in India.LITHOGRAPH VIA ALAMY
In the 1880 Battle of Maiwand, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Afghan forces destroyed British and Indian troops.ILLUSTRATION VIA HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Sikh soldiers guard Afghan prisoners near the Khyber Pass. The British invaded Afghanistan in 1878 after Emir Sher Ali Khan gave an audience to a Russian representative but refused to let a British diplomatic mission enter the country.PHOTOGRAPH VIA CAMERA PRESS/REDUX
Amanullah Khan, the king of Afghanistan (center), shares a row boat with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the president of Turkey, in 1928. Amanullah obtained Afghanistan’s freedom from Britain and introduced modern reforms, for which he was eventually exiled.PHOTOGRAPH VIA CHRONICLE/ALAMY
The Soviet Union also attempted to extend its influence over Afghanistan. In 1955, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (center) reviewed Afghan troops with Afghan Prime Minister Sardar Mohammed Daud Khan (left, in cap).PHOTOGRAPH VIA AP
Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, was deposed in a bloodless coup in 1973 and went into exile. After the U.S. pushed the Taliban back, he returned to Afghanistan, where he died in 2007.PHOTOGRAPH VIA KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GETTY IMAGES
Soviet and Afghan soldiers greet each other in 1980. A Communist coup in 1978 led eventually to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.PHOTOGRAPH VIA TASS/GETTY IMAGES
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (right) celebrates his birthday at the Kremlin in 1981 with Babrak Kamal, the Afghan president installed by the Soviet Union.PHOTOGRAPH VIA LASKI DIFFUSION/GETTY IMAGES
In 1983, President Ronald Regan met with Afghan fighters to discuss Soviet depredations in Afghanistan. The U.S. had begun to supply arms to anti-Soviet groups in 1980.COURTESY OF RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY VIA AP
Afghan president Mohammed Najibullah (center) greets Soviet soldiers in 1986. He stepped down in 1992 when mujahideen forces seized Kabul. When the Taliban took control in 1996, he was tortured and killed.PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL JANIN, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A Red Army paratrooper trains Afghan soldiers in close combat at the Kabul airport in 1988. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan the following year.PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUGLAS E. CURRAN, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Mujahideen soldiers dance on President Najibullah’s bed after his overthrow and the establishment of an Islamic government in 1992.PHOTOGRAPH BY LIU HEUNG SHING, AP
Taliban soldiers drive a Soviet tank into the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1997.PHOTOGRAPH VIA FOTOKING/CAMERA PRESS/REDUX
Two Afghan fighters seek scant cover during the conflict in 2001. The United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks.PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE MCCURRY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Afghan fighters search the wreckage of an al Qaeda training camp destroyed by U.S. bombing in December 2001.PHOTOGRAPH BY GARY KNIGHT, VII/REDUX
In 2004 mujahideen parade in Kabul to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their victory over the Soviets. They carry portraits of assassinated leader Ahmad Shah Massoud and Hamid Karzai, the country’s first elected president.PHOTOGRAPH BY AGOSTINO PACCIANI, ANZENBERGER/REDUX
A child waves at a passing column of German military vehicles. NATO forces joined the U.S. in Afghanistan.PHOTOGRAPH BY CARSTEN KOALL, VISUM/REDUX
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (left) meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul to discuss the country’s upcoming elections in 2004.PHOTOGRAPH BY SHAH MARAI, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Many girls in Afghanistan get no education at all. Even those who do enroll in a school typically study for just four years. So these members of Kabul University's class of 2010 are definitely in the minority. Wearing hijab under their mortarboards and seated in separate rows f...PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNSEY ADDARIO
After the Taliban was ousted in 2001, women were able to take larger roles in government, although it was still dangerous. In 2019 Marjan Mateen, deputy minister of education, heads to a meeting accompanied by an armed guard.PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA BRUCE, NOOR/REDUX
In 2020, young men and women could train to be models with Afghanistan’s first model agency.PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL PILAR, LAIF/REDUX
In the midst of unrelenting violence in 2019, Afghans attend a campaign rally for Abdullah Abdullah, chief executive of Afghanistan, in Bamyan, where the Taliban had destroyed monumental statues of Buddha in 2001.PHOTOGRAPH BY PAULA BRONSTEIN, GETTY IMAGES
General Austin Miller, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, greets General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, the Afghan defense minister, during a ceremony on July 12, 2021, in Kabul that marked the end of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.PHOTOGRAPH BY KIANA HAYERI, NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
People desperate to be evacuated after the Taliban takeover try to scale the walls surrounding Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021.PHOTOGRAPH VIA NURPHOTO/AP
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