Afghanistan has struggled so much socially, economically, and politically because of the weak and cruel government who do not care about the citizens, which causes their people to lack trust with others, inside and out. Afghanistan has struggled so much socially because they feel like they can’t trust anyone, no matter if they live in Afghanistan or not. In the book, “Breadwinner”, a character said this on page 23, “The Taliban encourage neighbor to spy on neighbor.
It is safer to keep to ourselves. ” It was a citizen of Afghanistan who said this, and if the people know that any of their neighbors could be spying on them, and just waiting for them to do something wrong so that they can tell the Taliban, the why would they trust them. And so many things are illegal, that at times it is probably hard for them not to break the law.
For example: pictures and videos are illegal, women can’t go out without an escort, girls can’t go to school, women can’t walk too loud, you can’t have books they don’t like (they will burn them), women must wear burqas, and you definitely can’t do anything that could somewhat resemble music (all of this was found in “The Breadwinner”). So why would anyone trust another person if any of these things could be reported? And they can’t trust other countries, because they know the countries don’t trust them.
From the article “Inside Afghanistan”, the president of the US says, “The Taliban must be driven out because it would continue to support terrorists who want to kill Americans. ” If this is how the US sees their government, then it is probably how they see them, so the citizens don’t really have any allies there. The Taliban are cruel and (page 130 of “The Breadwinner”) most people “moved through their days, as though they were moving through an awful nightmare–a nightmare from which there was no release in the morning.
And so the Afghans can’t really have social relationships with any of their neighbors, their government, nor other countries, and nowhere in this system is there any trust or respect. The biggest thing that causes the Afghans to struggle so much economically is their education. Or rather their lack of it. With the Taliban in charge, girls can’t even go to school, and most young boys have to work in order to make money and buy food for their family. Not that the Taliban care, most of them can’t read or write anyway.
In the “I was one of the Taliban’s torturers: I crucified people” article, the man said, “There are no educated people in this administration – they are all totally backward and illiterate. ” All the Taliban supposedly care about is their religion, but as the man in that same article wisely pointed out, “Nowhere does it say men must have beards or women cannot be educated; in fact, the Qur’an says people must seek education. ” And people with a good education like that man in “The Breadwinner”, who got his education in Europe, may be in danger of being arrested because they don’t trust you, just like the man did on page 30 and 31.
Another thing that contributes to them being so poor is their jobs. According to the clue sheet that we used earlier in the unit, overgrazing in Afghanistan makes it hard to farm most things, yet 80% of Afghans are farmers or herders, and everyone else is most likely to just have a low paying job in the city. Clearly there is not a very good system going on there, and it’s just getting worse now that the Taliban is there. One other thing that is causing them to be poor is their resources.
They are landlocked, so it is hard for them to have any goods that have to do with water, and so they will have to trade for them, but they can’t really go out by boat, which makes it even more difficult. The only resource that really helps them is them being a major opium producer, because it will earn them money. But even that has found a way to fail them, as it has lead to kids as young as 11 getting addicted to heroin because they are so depressed from living there (found in the “Afghanistan’s Child Drug Addicts” article).
All in all, their lack of education, jobs, and resources cause them to be the poor nation that the rest of the world knows them as. The government is the biggest problem for Afghanistan right now. I say this because their government can’t do anything. Despite what they might say, the Taliban is not actually the government of Afghanistan. They do have a presidential democracy, but that government doesn’t really have any control. Not under the Taliban at least. Because of this, their government is more about control and violence than it is about the way things are supposed to be running.
With multiple groups like the Taliban and ISIS fighting for control, the actual government has no control. The Taliban is completely against the government, and even threatened people who chose to vote in the election. They said that they would punish anyone who defied them, their “leaders”, and would go around checking every person’s finger for ink to make sure they didn’t vote (this was found in the “Taliban Targets Voters” video). And so, this pretty much gives all the control to the terrorist groups there. This causes a big problem because the Taliban then get to do whatever they want, even if they don’t have a reason.
For example, on page 160 of “The Breadwinner”, the father says this in response to his daughter asking him why he was let out of jail, “I don’t know why they arrested me. How would I know why they let me go? ” This just goes to show, that the Taliban don’t have any reason for what they are doing, and if they do, they clearly don’t give them to the people, which just makes them an even more cruel and weak government (if they can even be called a government). The problem is, though, that a lot of other places probably aren’t going to help, because they don’t know what is really going on.
In the “I was one of the Taliban’s torturers: I crucified people” article, one man said, “The Taliban seemed like good people who brought law and order. ” This can’t be true though, as they have done things far worse than many can imagine. A man from the same article who was forced into military service for the Taliban said that this was the instructions given to him by his leader, “Anyone can do beatings and starve people. I want your unit to find new ways to torture so terrible that the screams will frighten even crows from their nests and if the person survives, he will never again have a night’s sleep.
So clearly, the biggest problem here, is that the Taliban, and other groups like them, will do anything to keep control. All that being said, it is easy for me to say that Afghanistan has struggled so much in all of these ways because of the weak and cruel government who do not care about the citizens, which causes their people to lack trust with others, inside and out. Their lack of trust with others inside and out shows that they are not able to have relationships with anyone besides their family, which is causing more and more problems all the time.
The weak and cruel government couldn’t care less about education (as they clearly don’t have any) or things like jobs and resources for the people living there besides themselves, which obviously causes them to all struggle economically in many different ways. Their weak and cruel government obviously case problems politically because the real government have no control, and the Taliban chooses to rule by force and violence, which brings on war, and costs many lives every day.
