The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown by the US and its allies in a large-scale military intervention campaign.
After the US quickly withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban won a decisive victory over the Afghan government army and took power in just a few weeks.
Controlled area in Afghanistan on July 9 and August 16.
Twenty years of civil war have left thousands of fighters dead on both sides in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.
The number of civilian casualties in 2021 was significantly higher than in the same period in 2020, before the Taliban swept across the country.
The United Nations attributes the recent increase in civilian deaths to the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and assassinations carried out by the Taliban.
Years of civil war have also forced millions of people to flee their homes, some seeking refuge in neighboring countries or seeking to reach further afield.
Last year, more than 400,000 people were displaced by conflict.
Many people fled as the Taliban swept through the country.
Covid-19 has also placed an additional burden on the nation’s resources, and lockdowns and restrictions on movement have affected the ability of many people to make a living, especially in rural areas.
Children leave school after an exam in Afghanistan in July 2019.
However, over the past 20 years, life has improved for many people in Afghanistan, especially for women.
By 2003, 2.4 million girls were in school.
But according to Unicef, there are still more than 3.7 million Afghan children out of school and 60% of them are girls, mainly due to conflict, lack of adequate teaching equipment and lack of female teachers.
The Taliban say they no longer oppose girls’ education, but according to Human Rights Watch, few Taliban officials actually allow pubescent girls to attend school in areas they control.
Over the past two decades, Afghan women have also become more involved in public life, holding political positions and pursuing business opportunities.
The Afghan constitution was changed to stipulate that women should hold at least 27% of seats in the lower house, and in July they held 69 of the 249 seats.
More Afghans have gained access to mobile phones and the Internet, despite infrastructure problems across the country.
About 68% of people own mobile phones.
About 80% of adults in Afghanistan do not have a bank account, higher than the average for low-income countries.
In the capital Kabul, where traditional adobe houses line the hillsides, the city’s skyline has changed over the past 20 years, with clusters of high-rise buildings springing up to meet housing demand.
Kabul saw rapid urbanization after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, as people moved in from rural areas where fighting continued, and Afghans who fled the Taliban in the 1990s returned home from
Percentage of people living below the poverty line in Afghanistan.
Despite rapid economic growth thanks to international aid flowing in after the US military campaign in 2001, Afghanistan is still one of the poorest countries in the world.
A government survey of living conditions in 2016-2017 found that more than 54% of the population lived below the poverty line of 2,064 Afghani ($31) per person per month.
A Gallup survey in August 2019 found that severe drought in the past few years affected food security.
Poppy growing area in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan remains the world’s largest opium producer.
According to United Nations data, opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased significantly over the past 20 years and only 12 of the country’s 34 provinces are poppy-free, despite eradication programs and agricultural incentives.
The Taliban briefly enforced a ban on poppy cultivation in 2001 but later lifted it.
Scholar Vanda Felbab-Brown from the Brookings Institution believes that the Taliban will continue to allow opium poppy cultivation, because the 2001 ban was unpopular with the people, because their income depends on this crop.
The ban then caused `a huge political storm against the Taliban` and Felbab-Brown said that this was one of the reasons why a series of Taliban fighters deserted after the US launched the US military campaign, causing
