Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

In a madrassa in the Afghan capital, rows of teenage girls rock back and forth reciting verses of the Koran under the watchful eye of a religious scholar.

The number of Islamic schools has grown across Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, with teenage girls increasingly attending classes after they were banned from secondary schools.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are maintaining close ties with al-Qaida as they consolidate control over the country, and their main military threat is coming from the ISIL extremist group and guerrilla-style attacks by former Afghan government security personnel, U.N. experts said in a new report.

The Taliban warned the United States not to "destabilize" the regime on Oct. 9 during their first face-to-face talks since the U.S. withdrawal, as a deadly sectarian bombing raised further questions about their grip on power.

The top U.S. military officer called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a "strategic failure" and acknowledged to Congress that he had favored keeping several thousand troops in the country to prevent a collapse of the U.S.-supported Kabul government and a rapid takeover by the Taliban.

A month after seizing Kabul, the Taliban face daunting problems as they seek to convert their lightning military victory into a durable peacetime government.

"We will not allow any individual or group to use our territory against any other country," said Foreign Minister Muttaqi of Afghanistan's new Taliban government, the first comment by a Taliban government member on an agreement reached last year with the United States.

The United Nations exhorted the world on Monday to raise 6 million for Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger are spiraling since the Taliban took power and billions in foreign aid have dried up amid Western distrust of the Islamist militants.

Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities, including at post-graduate levels, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress is compulsory, the Taliban government's new higher education minister said on Sept. 12.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded with the international community, during an interview with AFP on Thursday to maintain a dialogue with the Taliban in Afghanistan, warning that an "economic collapse" with possibly millions dying must be avoided.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sept. 8 that the Taliban would have to earn legitimacy from the world, after talks with allies on how to present a united front to the hardline new government in Afghanistan.

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