Kabul - (AFP) - Taliban elements chanted victory chants Monday in Kabul near the former headquarters of the US embassy, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the movement's return to power in Afghanistan , a year that witnessed a major humanitarian crisis and a sharp decline in women's rights.

On August 15, 2021, the Taliban took control of the capital, Kabul, without encountering any resistance, following its lightning advance throughout the country, in light of the hasty withdrawal of US and NATO forces after twenty years of presence in Afghanistan.

"This great victory came after countless sacrifices and challenges," Deputy Prime Minister and one of the founders of the Taliban, Abdul Ghani Baradar, wrote on Twitter.

"On this day... the Islamic Emirate, the global superpower and its allies, knelt, and the Afghans gained their independence," he added.

The withdrawal of foreign forces continued in disarray until August 31, as tens of thousands of civilians flocked in panic to the capital's only airport, seeking to board whatever plane was available.

The world followed in amazement the crowds flocking to board the planes parked on the runway and how some climbed onto a plane or clung to a US military cargo plane during takeoff.

"We fulfilled the duty of jihad and liberated our country," said Nematollah Hekmat, a Taliban fighter who entered Kabul that day, a few hours after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

"It is a day of victory and happiness for Afghan Muslims and the Afghan people. It is the day of conquest and victory of the white flag" of the Islamic Emirate, wrote Taliban government spokesman Bilal Karimi on Twitter.

Monday was declared a public holiday.

Dozens of officers took pictures of themselves in Ahmed Shah Massoud Square, a large intersection decorated with large white flags of the Islamic Emirate, across from the former US embassy and leading to the airport, according to AFP photographer's observations.
And they chanted, during a spontaneous gathering in this square, "Long live the Islamic Emirate! God is great!"
A year later, Taliban fighters are glad to see their movement in power, while humanitarian agencies warn of grinding poverty affecting half of the country's 38 million people.
"When we entered Kabul, and when the Americans left, those were moments of joy," added Nematullah Hikmat, who is now a member of the special forces tasked with guarding the presidential palace.

But for ordinary Afghans, especially women, the return of the Taliban has only added to the difficulties.

Despite the promises they made in the beginning, the country's new rulers soon returned to imposing their strict interpretation of Islamic law that characterized their previous rule between 1996 and 2001 and severely restricted women's rights.

On the streets of the capital, Kabul, traffic was light and the population was quiet, except for the passage of trucks carrying armed Taliban elements carrying the flags of the Islamic Emirate, as was also seen in Kandahar, the Taliban's historic stronghold in the south of the country.

Some women dressed in burqas walked through the streets of Kandahar, carrying the emirate's flags.

However, women were largely excluded from government jobs and prohibited from traveling alone outside the cities in which they lived.
And in March, the Taliban banned girls from attending middle and high schools just hours after they reopened under a decision announced some time ago.

In early May, the Taliban's supreme commander, Hebatullah Akhundzada, ordered women to wear full-face veils in public. The Taliban have made it clear that they would prefer women to wear the burqa, but would tolerate other forms of veiling that reveal only the eyes.

"Since the day they arrived, life has lost its meaning... Everything has been taken from us, even our personal space," says Ogai Amail, a resident of Kabul.

On Saturday, Taliban gunmen with rifle butts and bullets dispersed a demonstration organized by about forty women to demand the right to work and education.

On Monday, about thirty of these demonstrators gathered at the house of one of them, and posted pictures on social media with slogans such as "Afghanistan's history is ashamed of closing schools."

"Our demand for justice was silenced with gunshots, but today we demand it from inside our house," protester Manisa Mubarez said in a text message to reporters.

Although Afghans acknowledge the decline in violence with the end of the war since the Taliban came to power, many Afghans are suffering deeply as a result of an acute economic and humanitarian crisis.

"People who come to our shops complain so much about the high prices that we shopkeepers start to hate what we do," said Noor Mohammad, a shopkeeper from Kandahar, the Taliban's historic birthplace and center of power in the south of the country.

But for the Islamist military, the joy of victory overshadows the current economic crisis.

One of them says, "We may be poor, we may be facing difficulties, but the white flag of Islam will fly high forever in Afghanistan."