The situation in the country is deteriorating day by day. Regardless of the perspective, there are no positive signs to be found. Insecurity and corruption, which the Taliban claimed they would eliminate, are instead increasing, particularly corruption, which has reached alarming levels. Passports, National Identity cards, and marriage certificates are publicly inaccessible without bribery. Essentially, the Taliban sell these documents at exorbitant prices on the black market to the impoverished Afghan populace, rather than providing them with services. Currently, a single passport, a basic right for every Afghan citizen, fetches between $2000 to $2500 on the black market due to Taliban sales. Moral corruption and sexual assault by the Taliban, who purport to establish pure Islamic governance, have become widespread. Disturbing reports of girls and women being abducted and sexually assaulted by the Taliban have surfaced. Reports of assaults by Taliban forces and commanders on imprisoned women and transgender individuals are also routine. Apart from the official restrictions imposed by the Taliban on the lives of Afghan women and men, the coercion, assault, and prejudice of this group have put tremendous pressure on the citizens of Afghanistan. People, especially young women and girls, find no peace at home or outside. Such a scenario necessitates serious actions from anti-Taliban factions to provide hope for the people and compel the Taliban to exercise restraint in their actions.
Opposition political and military movements, which could have coalesced and become a credible alternative to the Taliban over the past three years, have failed to make significant strides in that direction. Sometimes, one faction sometimes calls on others to join in “unity and solidarity,” yet neither pursues it themselves nor does others value it. The reason is that others perceive the inviter to unity as attempting to bring them under their banner. This situation is the product of distrust among opposition politicians and military personnel. They, especially political party leaders, have formed numerous fractious coalitions since the start of their political endeavors, only to break away from them or see these coalitions fall apart. Each of them has broken agreements, recognizes each other with the same political background, and thus cannot easily trust one another. Younger figures leading opposition political or military movements are also deeply divided. They neither accept following traditional leaders and joining their ranks nor do they possess sufficient capability to initiate a cohesive and powerful movement against the Taliban. Additionally, selfish interests among them are evident, leading them to speak against each other and widen the divides within the anti-Taliban sphere.
Although the military fronts against the Taliban have continued their scattered attacks on their fighters, they have yet to pose a significant challenge to the Taliban regime. The warfare waged by these fronts has so far been sporadic and opportunistic, inflicting casualties on the Taliban, but since Taliban fighters hold no value for the leadership of these groups and are treated merely as cannon fodder, the killing of some of them does not concern Mullah Hibatullah and his associates. They will only become concerned when these fronts can reclaim a portion of Afghan territory from Taliban control. Given the activities of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) thus far, it seems unlikely that they can create such concern and challenge for the Taliban in the short term.
The inability of the anti-Taliban military fronts to gain geographical footholds can be attributed to many factors, but a significant one is the lack of cohesion among these fronts. The Afghanistan Freedom Front and the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) are fighting in practice to either compel the Taliban to negotiate or overthrow their regime, but due to their ambitions, they have failed to stand together and support each other. One likely reason for the lack of cohesion or unity between these two military fronts is leadership. Figures like Yasin Zia probably do not want to fight under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, and conversely, Ahmad Massoud does not tolerate someone like Yasin Zia leading. For this reason, they call each other to unity and alliance but practically do not engage in dialogue to achieve this unity. This significant and destructive flaw also exists among other groups and movements opposed to the Taliban.
Political parties and alliances opposed to the Taliban also have their military fronts. Although they have different paths, they have all set the goal of achieving an elected, popular, and democratic government for themselves. The path they have chosen to achieve this goal is political work and lobbying to pressure the Taliban and bring them to the negotiation table through external pressures. However, they have not been able to make significant progress on this path so far. Neither the military fronts nor the opposing political movements have been able to establish themselves as an alternative to the Taliban to the world, and more importantly, to the people of Afghanistan. Due to their not-so-good political history, particularly the leaders of political parties, they have lost much of the public’s trust and have failed to garner the international community’s trust during this time. Therefore, when international organizations and the global community want to discuss Afghanistan, they do not invite these political movements and military fronts as a party to the Afghan issue. If they want to engage with both the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan people, they contact certain individuals and invite them to meetings. Political and military movements have failed to establish themselves as representatives of the Afghan people to the world. The reason for this is the lack of coherence among these forces. Opposing political movements have so far limited their activities to issuing summarized statements. They have neither been able to engage with the global community nor rebuild their tarnished image among the people of Afghanistan. The continuation of this situation brings more suffering to the people of Afghanistan.
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