The speech I gave at a @tudresden_de symposium on Global Complicities: "Complicity with the #Taliban: how should aid agencies respond to increasing restrictions on women's rights in #Afghanistan?" with the exception of girls’ secondary schools; but the Ministry of Education promised that they would reopen with the new academic year in March 2022.

I see several different analytical narratives surrounding the #Taliban drugs ban. So what is The Truth? 🧵 1/8

#Afghanistan This July '23 presentation, by the head of UNSC 1988 Sanctions Monitoring team, argues that the ban on opium is simply due to the Taliban switching to methamphetamine instead; essentially, the ban is a con & the intl cmty should not be duped:
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Time for a thread presenting the other side of the story. Here goes...

#Taliban is a native, homegrown, movement in #Afghanistan, with roots & traditions stretching back to at least the 16th Century. 1/

https://twitter.com/StephanAJensen/status/1673604631404982272

The political idea that a group of mullahs should control government began to gain traction amongst Pashtun clerics on British India's North West Frontier in the late-19th Century. The Sufi silsila of the Akhund of Swat was at the forefront of this. 2/

This thread will be part #Afghanistan tourism advice, part impressions from 2 weeks as a tourist in Afghanistan. Either way, I hope it will be interesting. Here goes...1/20 As a foreigner, you need an official permission letter from the Ministry of Culture & Info, detailing who you are & which provinces you wish to travel through. You need to get this as soon as possible after you arrive in Kabul. 2/

The way I see it is this: the Taliban won the war, and now have the monopoly on power (some minor challenges in Panjshir aren't going to change that). This is the first time in decades that Afghanistan faces such a situation. The Taliban *are* the Taliban... 1/ and in no way should one expect them significantly to change their views. Block on girls' secondary schooling & imposition of facial covering should not come as a surprise to anyone. 2/

1. Just returned to Europe after 15 months in #Afghanistan. In the wake of the Feb 2020 Doha Agreement, this was always going to be an historic year, but you may have read that no one could have predicted the #Taliban victory. 2. If you had crossed the frontline to visit the #Taliban late 2020/early 2021, you would have been left in no doubt. Their morale was sky-high; they were already rapidly seizing territory; and their enthusiasm and conviction that they were on the verge of victory was infectious.