Life in Afghanistan A Year After Taliban's Takeover - 15.08.2022, Sputnik International

The 15 August marks the first anniversary of the Taliban* movement taking control of Afghanistan, after the US-backed president, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country.

The Taliban returned to power in the wake of a chaotic withdrawal by US and coalition forces after nearly two decades of military presence in the war-ravaged country.

Check out Sputnik's gallery to see how Afghanistan has changed over the past year.

*Taliban is under UN sanctions over terrorist activities.

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This combination of pictures shows, top, Afghanis boarding a plane as they wait at Kabul airport on 16 August 2021, and, bottom, the same area of the airport on 1 August 2022.

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This combination of pictures taken on 10 August 2022, shows, top, a US soldier (center) pointing his gun at an Afghan passenger at Kabul airport on 16 August 2021, and, bottom, the same area of the airport on 1 August 2022.

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This combination of pictures shows, top, a volunteer carrying an injured man as others wait at Kabul airport on 16 August 2021, and, bottom, the same area of the airport on 1 August 2022.

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This combination of pictures shows, top, Afghans gathering on a road near the military part of the airport in Kabul on 20 August 2021, and, bottom, the same area of the airport on 3 August 2022. Tens of thousands of Afghan men, women and children rushed to Kabul's airport a year ago in a desperate bid to flee the advancing Taliban. Images of crowds storming parked planes, and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway were aired in news bulletins globally. The airport has now returned to a degree of normality.

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This picture taken on 14 July 2022 shows Taliban fighters taking a boat ride at Band-e Amir Lake in Bamyan province.

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A Taliban fighter stands guard as a woman enters the government passport office, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, 27 April 2022. Afghanistan's Taliban leadership has ordered all Afghan women to wear the all-covering burqa in public.

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In this photograph taken on 28 May 2022, a female Afghan presenter with Kabul-based news network 1TV, Lima Spesaly, delivers a live broadcast with her face entirely concealed by a veil.

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This photo taken on 19 July 2022, shows a woman and a child waiting in the back of a taxi to commute in Kandahar.

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Men buy Taliban flags along a street in Kabul on 9 August 2022.

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Boys play cricket in front of a school that was damaged during the conflict between the Taliban and Afghanistan's former ruling government, in Kandahar on 12 May 2022. (Photo by Javed Tanveer/AFP)

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This photo taken on 24 July 2022 shows girls studying in a secret school at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.

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Taliban fighters look for drug addicts hiding in the garbage they can be detained and moved to a drug treatment camp, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, 1 June 2022.

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Taliban fighters stand guard at the site of an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, 18 June 2022.

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This photo taken on 22 July 2022 shows a cholera patient resting in a ward at Musa Qala District Hospital in Musa Qala, Helmand.

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Afghan children watch a spear racing a horse as a Taliban fighter stands guard, in the sprawling Chaman-e-Huzori park in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday, 6 May 2022.