Life in Afghanistan has gotten perpetually worse for Afghans living under Taliban rule for the last three years as the humanitarian crisis continues to escalate, rights for women have all but vanished and Kabul remains essentially shut off from the international community.
A quarter of Afghans face "acute" food insecurity, more than half the nation requires humanitarian assistance, and according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), nearly 70% of the country is "subsistence insecure," meaning they do not have reliable access to basic resources like food, water, housing or health care.
After the Taliban takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, the nation’s economy "basically collapsed," according to the UNDP, in large part because international funding through government donor plans, like the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, were shut down.
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The Taliban has further exacerbated its own economic crisis by propelling its extremist ideologies and enforcing oppressive bans on women by barring their access to the workplace or education.
In three years since Washington concluded its "War on Terror," many have questioned whether life in Afghanistan is worse than it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. and its subsequent invasion.
"If it's not worse, it's heading in that direction quickly," Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and expert on security issues in the Middle East and South Asia, told Fox News Digital.
The Taliban has not only reinstated harsh bans on women, it has also brought back corporal punishment through public floggings and group-enforced executions. Additionally, the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, in May threatened to reinstate stoning women to death for adultery – a Taliban punishment on women that was never fully eradicated even during the U.S. incursion.
"The biggest difference between now and pre-2001 is the Taliban are much better resourced," said Rubin, who spent time with the Taliban before the 9/11 attacks.
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Rubin said that even though the Taliban are not directly funded by international humanitarian groups, it has found ways to siphon off funding for its own gains.
The Taliban marked the three-year anniversary of the takeover of Kabul in a parade on Wednesday at Bagram Air Base – formally the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan – while showing off U.S. military hardware that had been abandoned following the withdrawal.
While neglecting any mention of the hardship Afghans face, speeches championing Taliban efforts to squash opposition to the extremist group were flaunted, along with a reference to Afghanistan’s continued isolation from the international community.
"The Islamic Emirate eliminated internal differences and expanded the scope of unity and cooperation in the country," Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir said in reference to a term the Taliban uses to describe its government, according to an AP News report. "No one will be allowed to interfere in internal affairs and Afghan soil will not be used against any country."
Former U.S. military machinery abandoned at the airbase like helicopters, tanks and vehicles were displayed alongside soldiers holding light and heavy machine guns.
"The Taliban holds these parades yearly to rub their victory and our defeat in our face," Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and founding editor of "The Long War Journal," told Fox News Digital.
Afghanistan has largely remained an international pariah over its human rights violations. But even as some countries have begun to allow for diplomatic engagement with the insurgent group, Western nations remain highly concerned over how Afghanistan has once again become a haven for terrorist organizations.
"Afghanistan is far more dangerous today than it was prior to 9/11," Roggio said. "The Taliban is in full control of the country, and it is sheltering and supporting al Qaeda and allied terror groups."
Roggio said al Qaeda is once again running training camps in at least 12 provinces across the country with very little internal resistance.
