Cultural Context: The Taliban

Cultural Context with evidence of research (25 points) 

1.    The Taliban:

a.    What are the Taliban?

                                          i.    It is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. 

                                         ii.    It originated as a fundamentalist Muslim movement, but then turned into a terrorism group.

b.    Their Goal:

                                          i.    Their true goal is to seize and wield absolute power.

                                         ii.    They want to destroy all non-Muslims

                                        iii.    Ethnic Cleansing

                                       iv.    Bring Down the Pakistan government

2.    A Greater Understanding Towards the Novel:

a.    Views Towards Democracy:

                                          i.    Researching the Taliban made me realize why many Taliban people are against democratic governments. Their main goal is to get power, and the only way they feel that is achievable is through violence. They do not believe peaceful protests will get them there.

                                         ii.    In the book, after the Taliban entered, the region where Amir used to live became a dangerous, violent area. Assef was very against a democratic government. He liked the violence that came with the Taliban.

b.    Violence

                                          i.    Like I said earlier, they thought they could only get more power by violence.

                                         ii.    In the book, when Amir went back to visit Pakistan, people were so afraid of the Taliban. Researching more about some of the violent attacks against innocent civilians made me realize why. The Taliban would go into people’s homes and just kill innocent people, sometimes without reason, just like in the book. They believed in showing punishment through violence and that violence showed power.

c.    Ethnic Cleansing

                                          i.    The Taliban believe that the world should be rid of everyone except Muslims to get back to a greater Muslim state.

                                         ii.    In the book, they were killing mainly a certain type of people, the Hazaras because they thought the Hazaras were less superior. 

I GOT MY INFORMATION FROM: CNN: Who Are the Pakistani Taliban?