hey@MasterStrategist and@TillLindemann
Taliban, literally meaning 'students of Islam' or 'seekers of knowledge', have been part of Kandahar's 'Quran Belt' for centuries.[1] They were teachers, dispute mediators, and comforters of the dying.[1]They would also study in madrasas, living off charitable givings.[2] After their studies, they could become mullahs, the 'givers' of knowledge.[2] This provided a form of Islamic civil service in absence of state.[2]In 1978, the Saur Revolution brought into power the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan backed by the Soviet Union, which subsequently unleashed a Marxist campaign against religious leaders.[3]Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolution was spreading militant Islamism from the neighbouring country through underground networks.[4] Supporters of it started spreading their ideas across the desert, especially to the accessible Herat, which also had many Shia Muslims like Iran.[5] Nevertheless, the communist government continued to campaign against traditional and Islamic practices.[5] In March 1979, the Herat uprising began in response to the announcement of a compulsory literacy program for girls.[4] This gave rise to a spreading rebellion in the western countryside.[4] Eventually, a larger insurgency by the mujahideen began.[6] After the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan in 1979, Islamic mujahideen fighters engaged in war with those Soviet forces.
The Central Intelligence Agency began soon to support the insurgency through Pakistan.[7] Although no documentation has officially surfaced that the CIA directly supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda, it has been argued that military support was indirectly provided to the Taliban because in the 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) provided arms to Afghans resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the ISI assisted the process of gathering radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviets.[8] The Pakistani leader Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq pursued a religious and political agenda in Afghanistan.[9] Zia believed that political Islam should be embraced, saying that religion and ideology were the main sources of the country's strength.[10] He also saw jihad as a political weapon.[10] Zia insisted that all CIA support to the mujahideen go through Pakistani hands.[11] Pakistani support for them was overseen by the Inter-Services Intelligence.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taliban
does this help?
