Taliban Rule is Not Authoritarian but Despotic Totalitarianism

Taliban Rule is Not Authoritarian but Despotic Totalitarianism

Four years after returning to power, the Taliban regime has become a model of totalitarian rule, using the state as an instrument of total control, promoting a radical ideological agenda, and centralizing authority around a singular leader with a cult of personality. The regime pushes for a utopian society in which women are stripped of their agency, political violence is glorified, modern education is discouraged, and cultural expression is sup…