The Taliban are showing their true colours. The people face a desperate struggle for basic rights – and for survival
Even as the Taliban swept into Kabul in August – and even given their record in other parts of Afghanistan – some clung to hope, suggesting that the militants’ milder rhetoric was evidence that they might have changed substantially since they last held the country. As many warned, that was wishful thinking.
The country now faces two catastrophes, of basic rights and the economy. A population with higher expectations in every regard, better educated and better connected to the outside world, is faced by the same Taliban: brutal rulers who have never met the basic needs of those they have controlled.
