RAWA Statement on the Fourth Anniversary of the Medieval Taliban Emirate in Kabul
Let us sharpen the dagger of the fight against the Taliban-jihadist scourge and its American masters!
Four years have passed since the religious fascists of the Taliban conquered Kabul, four years in which the chains of imperialism, which have subjugated our homeland for decades, have tightened even further around our bodies, souls, and minds. Today, the Taliban, obscene creatures of the Pakistani secret services and the product of agreements between the United States, Qatar, the Iranian regime, and reactionary forces in the region, have become a machine of death and repression.
In the very first days of their rule, they deprived thousands of women of work and education; with weapons and violence, they imposed a medieval Inquisition; with their bloody policies, torture, and the disappearance of opponents, these executioners have transformed the entire country into a terrifying prison. Widespread unemployment, high prices for basic goods, corruption, desperation, and dozens of other misfortunes have made life completely unbearable for our poor people.
This regime they have imposed on us is a twenty-year continuation of the useless governments of Karzai and Ghani, who injected a culture of betrayal, fraud, and slavery into society. The presence of the Taliban in Afghanistan is no coincidence: it is a link in the chain of the United States’ colonial strategy to control the region and use fundamentalist and terrorist groups to achieve its sinister strategic and economic goals. Our land today is like a carcass preyed upon by the vultures of the region and the world. The United States continues to control the Taliban, even though it apparently has some differences with them. Pakistan, by empowering its lackeys, is stabbing our people in the back; Iran sends its cultural and media spies, along with its religious militias; Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, each in their own way, support reactionary and fundamentalist forces, polluting our soil.
From the earliest days, the Taliban seized the opportunity to seize control of our national wealth and mineral resources, plundering them for their own enrichment. Forced displacement and the repression of local protests paved the way for plunder, granting them greater privileges and intensifying internal rivalries between the Taliban and our various ethnic groups, pushing Afghanistan into deeper conflict and an unprecedented crisis. Most Taliban leaders either personally control poppy cultivation and drug trafficking or take their share from smugglers and mafia groups, thus becoming a new form of jihadist oligarchy.
The bloodthirsty Emirate of the Taliban, contrary to its claims, is not dedicated to ensuring peace and human dignity, but is determined to destroy the last shreds of our people’s most fundamental rights. Even some former “republicans” have turned into Taliban toadies and lobbyists. In Afghanistan, the CIA has invested for decades in jihadists, members of the “Parcham and Khalq” factions, and any weak and unscrupulous individuals, transforming them from intellectuals, journalists, civil society activists devoid of conscience and patriotism, presidents, ministers, diplomats, and others into loyal cadres. Separatist, ethnocentric, and power-connected intellectuals have always been openly or covertly hostile to democracy and secularism, and have sat at the table with traitors and fundamentalist criminals, ultimately maintaining their umbilical cord to imperialism and Zionism.
If the revolutionary, patriotic, progressive, and nationalist forces fail to recognize their heavy responsibility, if they fail to tear away the mask of imperialist and fundamentalist “culture” and “mentality” that has been cast over the minds and eyes of the people, and if they fail to learn the lessons of the painful experiences of the past… Afghanistan will not emerge from the current terrible catastrophe. And several generations will sink and be destroyed. Let us learn from the Palestinian mothers, youth, and children who, in their steadfast defense and love for their homeland, spare no sacrifice or acts of courage. Their epic stories of resistance and perseverance have moved the awakened consciences of the world, arousing admiration and support.
Today, when unfortunately there is no serious, mass-supported, national, independent, democratic, and anti-fundamentalist force on the Afghan scene, it is our duty, without any expectation from foreign governments, to sensitize ourselves and the disadvantaged masses by every possible means and method. We must reject the cowardly policy of “choosing between evil and the worst,” which for years has been imposed on us by Western governments and reactionary forces, leaving our people passive and without a vision for the future. Until the dawn of freedom, the movement—in every possible form, weight, location, and level—must remain alive and tangible; we must not allow young people to become disempowered, frightened, and broken human beings.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has also e mphasized that our honorable and patriotic women must purge their ranks of the puppets of reaction and imperialism and must not allow hateful and selfish figures like Fawzia Koofi, Habiba Sarabi, Shukria Barakzai, Asila Wardak, Manizha Bakhtari, Sima Samar, Naheed Farid, Mahbouba Seraj, and the like, to divert the women’s struggle from the revolutionary path toward compromise and submission to the White House and Western governments.
If the women of our country were the first Victims of religious fascism, over the past four years—suffering chains, imprisonment, and sacrificing their lives—have also been on the front lines and the main pillar of the struggle. They are the leaders of the anti-Taliban struggle. The Taliban’s fear of a women’s uprising is obvious: they know that our fighting spirit and our repressed rage, like that of the courageous women of Iran and Turkey, can shake the very foundations of religious tyranny. For this reason, the Taliban, through brutal attacks and methods, seek to completely erase women from society. The arrest of girls under the pretext of an “improper hijab,” their humiliation and abuse at the hands of whip-wielding officers of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, their systematic deprivation of education and employment, and other forms of repression and threats are all clear evidence of this terror, for the Taliban have understood that if this latent potential is awakened and organized, their inquisitorial rule will not last.
Sisters and Mothers In mourning,
Today we say loudly and without hesitation that the fundamentalists, be they jihadists, Taliban, or any other traitorous servant of the imperialist masters, must be removed from the Afghan scene. There can be no reform in this system; no salvation will come through compromise or supplication. The only way forward is to raise political awareness, organize, and strengthen the fighting forces so that the masses of all strata and nationalities of our people rise up united and with one voice in a national uprising. Otherwise, we will never free ourselves from these chains and will be condemned by future generations.
Only freedom, social justice, and democracy based on secularism can heal the wounds of our people. Let us therefore sharpen the dagger of the fight against the religious fascism of the jihadists, the Taliban, and their imperialist supporters!
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
August 14, 2025