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  • Iran in talks with the Taliban to resume ambitious rail project

    Iran is holding talks with the Taliban to resume construction of an ambitious rail project that ultimately aims to connect at least five Central Asian countries, according to an Iranian official. Iran is ready to make further investments and both sides are willing to finish construction on a rail line connecting Khaf in northeastern Iran with Herat in northwestern Afghanistan, according to Iranian transit official Abbas Khatibi.

  • Inside the Taliban’s return to power

    Mazar-i-Sharif was once the most secular, liberal of Afghan cities. But 20 years of corruption and misrule left it ripe for retaking by the Taliban. Will anything be different this time?

  • Afghanistan’s Taliban told they can’t take their guns to the funfair

    Taliban fighters, many of whom have spent most of their lives in a 20-year insurgency against a U.S.-backed government, flocked to amusement parks in Afghan cities in towns after they took over in August.

  • The Taliban’s religious roadmap for Afghanistan

    Historically, as Sunni Muslims, the Taliban’s main reference point has been the Deobandi school, a variant of Hanafi Islam founded in the mid-19th century. While most Afghans follow Sunni Hanafi Islam, Talibanism is a shift away from traditional Deobandism and toward a more tailored and unwritten mixture of puritanical beliefs wrapped in Islamic sharia.

  • On Patrol: 12 Days With a Taliban Police Unit in Kabul

    Tasked with guarding a Shiite shrine, a police unit offers a telling snapshot of the Taliban’s rank-and-file fighters and the challenges Afghanistan’s rulers face in governing a diverse nation.

  • Commentary: How to help Afghans without aiding the Taliban

    Since the fall of Kabul in August, the Taliban — unrecognized and under sanctions by the United States and European Union — have been barred from accessing $10 billion in Afghan government funds, mostly frozen in the U.S. Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, flows of foreign aid — once used to cover the majority of public expenditures — have slowed to a trickle.

  • The Taliban Have Staffing Issues. They Are Looking for Help in Pakistan.

    Government jobs are given as patronage to ex-fighters and exiles living quietly in Pakistan. But not all possess the technical skills required for the job.

  • Senior Taliban delegation visits Iran as quest for legitimacy continues

    Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has visited Tehran for talks with Iranian officials. The top diplomat headed the highest-level delegation to visit Afghanistan’s neighbor to the west since the Taliban seized power last August. The trip comes as the Afghan group is struggling for legitimacy since no country has recognized its rule. Iran says that once the Taliban form “an inclusive government,” it will recognize it—and persuade others to do the same.

  • Afghanistan’s Taliban ban long-distance road trips for solo women

    The directive, issued on Sunday, is the latest curb on women's rights since the Islamist group seized power in August. A majority of secondary schools remain shut for girls, while most women have been banned from working.

  • U.N. proposing paying nearly $6 million to Taliban for security

    The proposed funds would be paid next year mostly to subsidize the monthly wages of Taliban fighters guarding U.N. facilities and to provide them a monthly food allowance under an expansion of an accord with the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, the document reviewed by Reuters shows.