For weeks, the Taliban promised to unveil an “inclusive” government: one that would respect women’s rights, albeit within the confines of Shariah; represent different ethnicities; and bar terrorist groups from Afghanistan. Then, on Tuesday, the Taliban announced the leadership of the caretaker government. It is all male and packed with veterans of the brutal Taliban regime of 1996 to 2001. One is on the F.B.I.’s most-wanted list, four spent more than a decade in the Guantánamo Bay prison and most are under sanctions from the United Nations. If there was a message that the movement, born in Pakistan’s madrasas nearly three decades ago, wanted to communicate, it appeared to be: We have not changed.

Source: International New York Times September 10, 2021 23:13 UTC