Most Afghans have had to acquiesce to the Taliban not because they embrace their misogynistic ideology but because they have all the guns. Still, there is a nascent resistance movement. I spoke to its leader, Ahmad Massoud, who said he’s engaged in “a fight for the soul and future of our nation, and we are determined to win, no matter the odds.”
He is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who led the Afghan resistance to the Taliban more than two and half decades ago when the Taliban first seized power in Afghanistan in 1996.
Massoud is now 35, and he leads the National Resistance Front to the Taliban. In our interview, he asserted that his group has carried out 207 military operations around Afghanistan this year and that he has 5,000 soldiers under his control. Verifying this kind of information independently is nearly impossible as there are relatively few international journalists covering Afghanistan, while the Taliban have closed hundreds of Afghan media outlets. The UN put out a report in June that documented a surge of anti-Taliban attacks during the first six months of this year but put the number at 29 operations carried out by the National Resistance Front, while on the group’s X feed, there are claims of far more operations.
Massoud told me that “the Taliban’s true victory wasn’t on the battlefield; it was at the negotiating table,” a withdrawal agreement that was negotiated by then-President Donald Trump’s team and carried out by President Joe Biden.
Massoud lives in an undisclosed location in Central Asia directing military operations in Afghanistan from outside the country. We conducted our interview over email, and it has been edited for clarity.
BERGEN:
The Taliban last week banned the sound of women’s voices outside of the home. This seems crazy, but the Taliban can do it with impunity. What does this say about their hold on power?
MASSOUD: This is a blatant display of ignorance and arrogance. The Taliban believe they can punish the people of Afghanistan, especially women, and yet they can also still gain international recognition. [Today, no government officially recognizes the Taliban, though several governments do have diplomatic relations with them.] This impunity is a direct result of the international community’s policy of appeasement of the Taliban over the past three years. If we hope to see a change in the Taliban’s behavior, we must alter our approach towards them. It’s that simple.
Within Afghanistan, our strategy for resistance is clear. The Taliban only respond to power and force. Diplomatic engagement with the Taliban has only emboldened them.
