Five years after returning to power, the Taliban remains deeply repressive, while growing tensions with Pakistan, armed opposition groups and a deepening humanitarian crisis are putting new pressure on its rule.

Acting in the name of a self-centred version of Islam, the group has made no effort to modify its hardline ideological beliefs in favour of a more humane and inclusive approach to governing.

Nor has it refrained from hosting many like-minded violent extremist groups. The United Nations has issued repeated warnings about the resurgence of terrorism from Afghanistan.

The Taliban is also facing growing security challenges from within its own ranks and a cluster of armed resistance forces. Relations with its former patron, Pakistan, have completely broken down, with the country’s defence minister declaring an “open war” on the group earlier this year.

Rather than moderating it’s rule, the Taliban has only hardened its brand of Islam, which is not practised anywhere else in the Muslim world, and tightened its repressive, misogynist and regressive rule.

It has also........

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