Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan should not be celebrated

Kabul fell on August 15th, leading to the collapse of the Afghan government and widespread elation amongst various sections of Pakistani society. In fact, it seems that Pakistan has gone into jubilation overdrive. Just when the world’s media was showing images of desperate Afghans trying to flee Kabul even if it meant clinging on to a departing airplane, our prime minister was gloating and declaring that Afghans had “broken the shackles of slavery”.Many TV anchors are rejoicing and framing the return of the Taliban as some kind of victory of a poor and humble people over a mighty superpower. Their joy is shared by a huge majority of Pakistan’s educated urbanites and the social media is abuzz with posts about an “Indian defeat”. Even before the full collapse of the Afghan government, there were viral trends such as “#TalibanOurGuardians” eulogising the Taliban.
Broadly those who are supporting the Taliban can be divided into three types.
Firstly, those who support the collapse of an India-American backed Afghan government. For them this defeat is more than enough to gloss over any concerns pertaining to the Taliban. They don’t care what happens to millions of Afghans, who are fearful about their future. In fact, such people think that civilians who supported the now fallen Afghan government deserve Taliban’s brutal retribution.
The second consist of self-proclaimed moderate supporters. Who are also jubilant over the defeat of the Afghan government but at the same time are experiencing a cognitive dissonance emanating from Taliban’s brutal and well documented past, particularly with respect to treatment of women and minorities. Since the world has well founded concerns over the Taliban’s brutal style of governance, to resolve this cognitive dissonance they try to paint the Taliban as kind individuals who are misunderstood and reject every concern as western propaganda. They also label those Pakistanis who are voicing concern as armchair theorists and western media influenced individuals,