Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Taliban seized Kabul in 1996 and established the First Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, ruling approximately 90 percent of the country until the US-led invasion in October 2001 led to the collapse of their government by December 2001.
Under Hibatullah Akhundzada's leadership, the Taliban launched a military offensive in May 2021 during the withdrawal of US troops. By mid-August 2021, they controlled every major city in Afghanistan, and President Ashraf Ghani fled to the United Arab Emirates, confirmed by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 18th of August 2021.
The Taliban banned women from most employment, required them to wear a burqa in public, and prohibited them from traveling without a male guardian. Under their second rule, on the 21st of December 2022, they banned all education for girls and women nationwide. In December 2024, they also banned women from being trained in nursing and midwifery.
Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of the two 6th-century monumental statues on the 2nd of March 2001. Ambassador Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi stated that the decision followed a foreign offer to fund restoration of the statues while refusing to redirect money to feed Afghan children. Omar later said in a 2004 interview that he would not have ordered the destruction had foreign visitors come for humanitarian work instead.
Scholarship places the Taliban's ideology on the far-right of the political spectrum, combining Pashtun tribal codes with radical Deobandi interpretations of Islam. Their operating principles since founding were modeled on those of Abul A'la Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami movement, and their religious jurisprudence followed the Hanafi school alongside the edicts of Mullah Omar.
As of 2026, only Russia has granted the Taliban government diplomatic recognition. The international community has largely withheld recognition, urging the Taliban to form an inclusive government and protect the rights of women and minorities.