positioning the Taliban as a key geopolitical player. In 2024, two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population are facing crisis levels of hunger. With the economy in shambles, minimal support comes from United Nations aid via the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund.201 Over the past several decades, Afghanistan’s society has endured prolonged violence, from the Soviet occupation to the US occupation in the guise of the ‘War on Terror.’202 This continuous state of war on Afghanistan has led to a collapsed economic and social system, poor governance, and an influx of weapons that have further destabilized the country. IN 2020, AID CONSTITUTED 43 PERCENT OF AFGHANISTAN’S GDP, FINANCED 50 PERCENT OF THE BUDGET, AND COVERED 75 PERCENT OF PUBLIC AND 90 PERCENT OF SECURITY EXPENDITURES. For nearly two decades, sixteen states, including the US, Russia, and Brazil, have supplied weapons and equipment to Afghanistan. The US alone has provided 74 percent of these arms, spending $83 billion on training and arming the Afghan National Security Forces (ANDSF). This overwhelming international flow of arms took place with the agreement of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies.203 Instead of delivering stability and prosperity, two decades of foreign intervention fostered corruption, political instability, and deepening social and economic disparities, and in 2020, aid constituted 43 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP, financed 50 percent of the budget, and covered 75 percent of public and 90 percent of security expenditures.204 In 2021, the international community cut all aid, roughly $8 billion USD annually.205 Facing this crisis,the Taliban have set up mechanisms to leverage aid through ‘exemptions’. For example, the Taliban’s December 201 orld Bank. (2023). Afghanistan Welfare Monitoring Survey. The World Bank. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/ doc/975d25c52634db31c504a2c6bee44d22-0310012023/original/Afghanistan-Welfare-Monitoring-Survey-3.pdf 202 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. (2024). Reasoning with the Patriarchy: The Political, Economic, and Social Fallout from Talking with the Taliban. WILPF. https://www.wilpf.org/reasoning-with-the-patriarchy-the-political-economic-and-social-fallout-from-talking-with-the-taliban/ 203 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. (2021) Militarisation in Afghanistan. https://www.wilpf.org/ wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Militarisation-in-Afghanistan.pdf 204 World Bank. (2022) ‘Through the Looking Glass’: Lessons from the World Bank Afghanistan Portfolio for FCV Engagement. The World Bank. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099915101032321436/pdf/ P17861103275970d50957302bfb0c71a607.pdf 205 Ibid. 57