Image: AP
Faizel Patel – 16/08/2021
Author and journalist Yvonne Ridley who was captured by the Taliban in 2001 says she was not entirely surprised that the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, as it has been their goal for the past twenty-years.
Ridley was speaking to Radio Islam on Monday after the Taliban seized ten provincial capitals, including the movement’s spiritual home of Kandahar in less than a week.
On Saturday Taliban forces surrounded the capital Kabul.
Ridley says the Taliban bided their time during the last two decades to become a movement that is in touch with the needs of the Afghan people and women’s rights.
“I think that they have grown and developed in wisdom and stature and I think that we could be in for a few pleasant surprises because I think what we’ll see is a much more mature government for the Afghan people.”
Ridley says the sounds coming out of Kabul are very promising despite the distressing scenes at the airport and hysteria portrayed in the media.
This is what happens in regime changes. I saw the scenes and this was like going back to Saigon 1975. This is what happens in war and let’s hope lessons have been learnt.”
Ridley says Western governments have always made the Taliban out to be monsters.
She says what is absent in all of the hysteria is any meaningful analysis, insight, or even simple facts about how the Taliban forces have managed to sweep through Afghanistan taking strategic cities in just a few days.
“What I would say the media that are whipping up this hysteria and continuing with propaganda against the Taliban is how on earth did they think that they took Afghanistan so quickly? It wasn’t the fact that the Americans were leaving, it was the fact that they had popular support on the ground and the Taliban could not have advanced so quickly through the country without that support”
Ridley says while the Taliban have set out win the hearts and minds of a lot “networks” in Afghanistan, the movement realized that it may not be enough and they would have to expedite plans for the economy, trade and development with good neighbours the likes of which include China, Russia, Turkey and Pakistan among others.
Listen to the interview with Yvonne Ridley
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