Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Two years ago, the Taliban recaptured Kabul, the Afghan capital, in a final offensive to take back the country after the awkward and humiliating withdrawal of U.S. military forces from the region. Ever since, the international community, including several Muslim-majority countries, has severely condemned the de facto fundamentalist government over its sweeping and abusive restrictions on women’s rights and Free Speech, as well as its torture, unlawful detention, and extrajudicial killings of political opponents and journalists. Was the failed western intervention in Afghanistan worthwhile? How should the West and other democracies now handle an oppressive theocracy that actively curtails human rights? Will mere sanctions and diplomatic measures prevail over time?
Featuring:
Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University.
Arsallah Khan Hoti, member of the public service of Pakistan, PK 52 Mardan 5.
Nipa Banerjee, senior fellow and adjunct professor, University of Ottawa.
Dawn Chatty, emerita professor of anthropology and forced migration, University of Oxford.
Minlib Dallh, research fellow for the “Study of Love in Religion,” Regent’s Park College, Oxford.
Michael Scott (moderator), senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.
Sanford J. Ungar (moderator), president emeritus of Goucher College, director, Free Speech Project, Georgetown University.
Recorded August 16, 2023
Two years ago, the Taliban recaptured Kabul, the Afghan capital, in a final offensive to take back the country after the awkward and humiliating withdrawal of U.S. military forces from the region. Ever since, the international community, including several Muslim-majority countries, has severely condemned the de facto fundamentalist government over its sweeping and abusive restrictions on women’s rights and Free Speech, as well as its torture, unlawful detention, and extrajudicial killings of political opponents and journalists. Was the failed western intervention in Afghanistan worthwhile? How should the West and other democracies now handle an oppressive theocracy that actively curtails human rights? Will mere sanctions and diplomatic measures prevail over time?
Featuring:
Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University.
Arsallah Khan Hoti, member of the public service of Pakistan, PK 52 Mardan 5.
Nipa Banerjee, senior fellow and adjunct professor, University of Ottawa.
Dawn Chatty, emerita professor of anthropology and forced migration, University of Oxford.
Minlib Dallh, research fellow for the “Study of Love in Religion,” Regent’s Park College, Oxford.
Michael Scott (moderator), senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.
Sanford J. Ungar (moderator), president emeritus of Goucher College, director, Free Speech Project, Georgetown University.
Recorded August 16, 2023
