Back in the days when Afghanistan was still a ramshackle democracy, I visited a hospital in Kabul. The city was then enduring regular terrorist attacks by the Taliban. A suicide bomber had blown up a bus full of judges and court staff. One victim was married to a nurse, who was on duty when he arrived, horribly injured. (He is now paraplegic.) She was “coping”, a colleague told me, adding: “She’s one tough woman.”

It is now five years since President Joe Biden pulled American troops out of Afghanistan. The Taliban swept to power immediately, overthrowing the elected government as soon as American protection was withdrawn. On the plus side, Afghan civilians no longer worry that the Taliban will set off bombs in crowded places, as they have no cause to launch terrorist attacks on a country they now rule. On the downside, they now rule. 

Our cover story this week is based on a 1,000km road trip taken by my colleague Tom Sasse, our South Asia bureau chief. He found a nation that is largely calm, but wretched. Music is banned. The vice-and-virtue police dish out beatings to men with inadequate beards. Women are barred from workplaces; girls are forbidden education beyond primary school. Since child marriages are now legal, many have been forced straight from the classroom into unwanted wedlock. 

Yet vile though the regime is, we argue that America and other democracies should engage with it. Ostracism and sanctions have not worked. Less squeamish powers, such as Russia and China, are trying to pull Afghanistan into their orbit. Western countries should stop cutting humanitarian aid, which nearly half of Afghans need. And they should recognise the government. This does not imply approval, only pragmatism. Functioning embassies can watch out for threats on the ground, and create channels of communication, which in time could encourage the regime’s less hardline elements. For now, and probably for decades, the outlook for Afghanistan is grim. But the regime is so out of step with the rest of the world—and the desires of most of its own people, especially those tough women—that it must eventually change. 

On the Insider this week I joined our editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, and other colleagues to talk about the Taliban. You can watch our discussion now.

Five years since America left Afghanistan, the policy of isolation has failed