The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, retroactively referred to as the First Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, was a totalitarian Islamic state led by the Taliban that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996
A member of the Taliban's religious police beating a woman in Kabul on 26 August 2001. The footage was filmed by RAWA.
Destruction of Buddhas, 21 March 2001
Shuja Shah Durrani and Men in his decorated palace Wellcome V0050531
Mullah Omar
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Muhammad Umar Mujahid, commonly known as Mullah Omar or Muhammad Omar, was an Afghan militant and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. He founded t
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)
…areas. The Taliban sought to establish law and order and to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, along with the religious edicts of Mullah Omar, upon the entire country of Afghanistan. During the five-year history of the Islamic Emirate, the Taliban regime interpreted the Sharia in accordance…
Omar as hafiz student in his youth, 1978, colourised
A still from a 1996 video taken secretly by BBC Newsnight. It purports to show Omar (left) presenting the cloak of Muhammad to his troops in Kandahar, before their successful assault on Kabul.
The June 15, 1998 letter from Mullah Omar to "all Taliban members young and old", complaining that his orders are not being followed. The letter was found in an al-Qaeda safe house in Kabul.
Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan (pictured in 1976) in March 2001, receiving international condemnation.