To mark the one-year anniversary of when US-led forces left Afghanistan, the Taliban made Wednesday a national holiday and put colourful lights up all over the capital.
The poor country is now ruled by a strict new Islamic law that keeps women out of public life and is not recognised by any other country.
But despite the restrictions and the worsening humanitarian crisis, many Afghans say they are glad that the foreign army that started the Taliban insurgency left after a terrible 20-year war.
A man named Zalmai who lived in Kabul said, “We’re glad that Allah got the people who didn’t believe out of our country and set up the Islamic Emirate. The government’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, sent out a tweet that said, “Happy Independence Day.”
In a separate statement, the government said that day marked “the end of American occupation of the country.” So many mujahideen have been hurt over the years, leaving behind so many kids without parents and so many widows.
At the Bagram Air Base, where US forces launched airstrikes against the Taliban, there was a big party.
Foreign reporters were not allowed to be there to cover the event.
Only a few Taliban fighters were driving around Kabul on Wednesday morning, and most people stayed inside because the government had declared a national holiday.
Last year, on August 31, the last US military plane left Kabul at 12 o’clock midnight.
After the attacks on September 11, 2001, in New York, this was the start of the longest war in U.S. history. When they left, the war was over.
66,000 Afghan soldiers and 48,000 civilians died in the fight, but the deaths of 2,461 US service members were too much for the American people to handle.
But the war in Afghanistan was hard on more than just Americans, the US military said on Tuesday.
Also killed were more than 3,500 soldiers from other NATO countries.
After a quick attack on government forces, the Taliban quickly took over the country two weeks before the withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
On Wednesday, flags were flying in Kabul to celebrate victories over three empires, including the former Soviet Union and Britain, which both lost battles in Afghanistan.
The squares in the capital city were lit up, and hundreds of white Taliban flags with the Islamic creed flew from lampposts and government buildings.Tuesday night, a lot of Taliban rebels shot into the night sky over Kabul as a way to celebrate.
In Massoud Square, which is close to where the US embassy used to be, armed Taliban fighters held “Death to America” banners and yelled at people. Some of them raced through the city with their horns blaring.
On Taliban social media sites, pictures and videos of newly trained soldiers were posted. Many of these soldiers were seen showing off equipment that the US military had left behind during its hasty retreat.
“This is how you troll a superpower after humiliating them and forcing them to leave your country,” said a tweet with a picture of the huge Taliban banner that had been painted on the wall of the old US embassy.
Even though the Taliban are happy to be in charge, the 38 million people who live in Afghanistan are going through a terrible humanitarian crisis that has been made worse by the freezing of assets worth billions of dollars and the end of foreign aid.
Afghans in general, and women in particular, are having more trouble.
The Taliban made it hard for women to work in many government jobs and shut down secondary schools for girls in many provinces.
They have also made it a law that women must wear full coverings in public, preferably a burqa.
Zulal, a former government worker in the city of Herat who lost her job when the Taliban took over, says that women are mentally ill because they don’t have basic rights, a job, or an education.
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Because their schools were closed, girls are especially upset. The look on their faces shows it.
Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said last week that a lot of progress had been made in the past year.
He told the reporters, “Afghans are no longer dying in battle, foreign troops have left, and security has gotten better.”
