How is Taliban propaganda turning Afghanistan into Radiant Medina?
Author: Abdul Naser Noorzad, researcher of national security and geopolitics
Terrorist and extremist groups that use violence in a structured and institutional way to achieve their political goals and objectives use propaganda as a tool to create fear in people's hearts, brainwash ordinary people in society, and create balance in the battlefields.
Propaganda, or political propaganda, for extreme and radical movements that are designed to overthrow established political systems in the form of intelligence plans and around seditious programs, is actually a double-edged sword. The benefit of propaganda for extreme and radical movements that have created fear in the general mentality of the people by adopting violent methods is to brainwash the public and mobilize people around false ideals and distortion of facts.
Exciting national, religious and ideological feelings, inciting personal complexes, creating motivation for the rise of false heroes, renewing the narrative of independence and fighting against the occupation, and creating an inflexible mentality in the lower strata that make up the core of the war. It is at the forefront of the propaganda work of such groups. In such a situation, rural people are more motivated to join the battle line in these cases; without knowing the main nature of the war, the goals of its leaders, its resources and the legitimacy of the struggle they have chosen.
After being overthrown from power in 2001 and especially after 2006, the Taliban widely used the propaganda approach and creating a mindset to create balance, encouraging the youth of the southern region to commit suicide and explosions, and promoting the culture of violence as a means of continuing their struggle with the government and foreign forces. have taken By publishing videos of explosions, suicide attacks, beheadings, attacks and ambushes on foreign forces and Afghan security forces, on the one hand, this group used the mentality of fear and the visualization of their strength to impress the people, and at the stage Later, in order to attract more uninformed and lack of intellectual tact to carry out suicide attacks, which this group calls martyrdom, they sent many people to their death. Uninformed, emotional and stuck in traps and tricks that were usually designed by intelligence organizations, they were usually the fuel of proxy wars such as the Taliban war in Afghanistan.
The Taliban movement used this method from the beginning of its formation and specifically after 2007, and finally they succeeded in giving out a illusory and false image of the nature of this group. But now that they are in control of the government in Afghanistan, they continue to use this method but with different and modern techniques and in the form of a political structure under the name of the Islamic Emirate.
National television, image media such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter channels are usually useful tools for the Taliban. The content of these media is nothing but conveying the false message of happiness under the rule of the so-called Islamic Emirate, justice and equality and decisive action against people who disturb the security and peace of the people. A thing that rarely its viewers and audience, especially those who look at the issues from afar and have a sense of ethnic superiority and descent in their mentality, realize its main nature and intention.
National TV, as the only government media in the possession of the Taliban, always broadcasts the meetings of the Taliban leaders with the representatives and diplomats of foreign countries and foreign organizations that can be considered important to help the economic situation, the construction work of intersections, roads and Clinics, enforcement of the municipal pricing law, urban control by mullahs responsible for security and traffic on the roads of cities and provinces, meeting of Taliban officials with the people of the province, etc. However, the main content of this program is nothing but promoting psychological warfare, political propaganda and creating a false image of the Taliban who have been defeated in the minds of the majority.
The media dictatorship of the Taliban is trying to make up for the failures and failures of this group with the help of intelligence circles, technical teams and professionals, and with the grace and favor of modern technology that has been placed at the service of the Taliban Emirate for a reason. Creating Twitter accounts, Facebook, YouTube channels, conducting interviews that give the general public the mentality of providing 100% security in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, all are arranged in the same direction. The Taliban propaganda giant is always trying to be the front of radical and terrorist propaganda for the consistency of this group's rule. For this reason, during this period of their rule, the Taliban have realized the importance of media and television, and unlike the previous period of their rule, they have not banned television and video media. Describing Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, which will be on the verge of collapse with little spark and collective reaction, is like painting a lion black. And this is exactly what the media dictatorship is doing for the Taliban.
While the living conditions that were bad in the Republic have now worsened under the Taliban rule, but the content of these media shows something else manipulated. Poverty, insecurity, systematic discrimination, unemployment, persecution of people, trying to impose certain rules of the rural society on the majority of the Afghan society, increasing the poverty line, fleeing young and educated people, lack of professional staff for governance. The increase in prices and such cases under the shadow of the Talibanism camera, which has turned into a utopia and the media censorship of the Taliban, does not allow the bitter realities of the Afghan society to leak out and be exposed.
The Taliban want to confuse the public's belief in the current situation of the country with false confidence in a situation where they consider historical political and military defeat as probable, because the lack of domestic and international legitimacy and the intensification of regional and global pressures on this group due to their radical policies will affect the domestic environment willy-nilly. Understanding this issue and with the advice of the intelligence circles, the Taliban are trying to manipulate the facts and are extremely afraid that the uprising of the hungry, the revolution of the disaffected, and the inefficiency of their emirate will cause them to be overthrown, which does not seem so unlikely.
In the current situation where the country is facing a financial and economic crisis, the rate of crime and misdemeanor has increased and the economic structure of the country is severely disrupted, the environment of the country is being destroyed, what is the solution for the Taliban besides fighting in Do they have a measure against the region, the world, and the resistance fronts, against public uprisings?
Even in the current situation where tyranny and tyranny are rampant in the country, Taliban insiders have also been affected and according to the evidence, no traces of those ideological beliefs and certainties of the past have remained in the mentality of the people of this group. The high level of administrative corruption and unprecedented luxury among the people of this group, self-absorption and possible nepotism, plunged everything into the transformation of the prestige and hegemony of the Taliban's radical dictatorship. This is considered as the certain death of this group.
