Encyclopedia of Islam

Afghanistan

  

15  J

---

in 1979–89, the country was torn by a lengthy 

civil war. Both of these conflicts contributed to 

the growth of heavily armed guerrilla militias and 

forced 6 million Afghans to become 

reFUgees

 in 

neighboring countries. The civil war ended with 

the establishment of the extremist Islamic govern-

ment of the t

aliban

 in 1996. That government 

was infamous for its brutal treatment of women, 

persecution of religious minorities, and destruc-

tion of the famed colossal images of the Buddha 

in Bamian (2001). The Taliban were removed by 

force in late 2001, when the United States led 

an international invasion and occupation of the 

country as a consequence of the war on terror it 

launched in the aftermath of the September 11, 

2001 attacks by the 

al

-q

aida

 organization, which 

was headquartered in Afghanistan. A constitution-

ally based transitional government with its capital 

in Kabul has since been created, but the new 

regime, known as the Transitional Islamic State 

of Afghanistan (TISA), faces enormous challenges 

to its legitimacy from powerful regional warlords, 

opium drug traffickers, and Muslim guerrilla 

forces.

See also a

Fghan

 

mUJahidin

; 

constitUtionalism

; 

p

ersian

 

langUage

 

and

 

literatUre

.