Editing Taliban (section)

=== Relationship with other religious groups ===
{{further|Attacks on humanitarian workers|Christianity in Afghanistan}}
Along with Hindus, the small [[Christianity in Afghanistan|Christian community]] was also persecuted by the Taliban.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gebauer|first=Matthias |title=Christians in Afghanistan: A Community of Faith and Fear |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/christians-in-afghanistan-a-community-of-faith-and-fear-a-408781.html |access-date=11 May 2021 |website=Der Spiegel|date=30 March 2006 }}</ref> Violence against Western aid workers and Christians was common during the Afghan conflict.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ten killed in Afghanistan worked for Christian group |url=https://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/07/ten-killed-in-afghanistan-worked-for-christian-group/ |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=CNN |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405100006/https://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/07/ten-killed-in-afghanistan-worked-for-christian-group/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On several occasions between 2008 and 2012, the Taliban claimed that they assassinated Western and Afghani medical or aid workers in Afghanistan, because they [[Vaccine misinformation|feared that the polio vaccine would make Muslim children sterile]], because they suspected that the 'medical workers' were really spies, or because they suspected that the medical workers were [[Proselytism|proselytizing]] Christianity.

In August 2008, three Western women (British, Canadian, US) who were working for the [[Humanitarian aid|aid group]] '[[International Rescue Committee]]' were murdered in Kabul. The Taliban claimed that they killed them because they were foreign spies.<ref name="BBC, Oct008">{{Cite news |date=20 October 2008 |title=UK charity worker killed in Kabul |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7679212.stm |access-date=7 October 2017}}</ref> In October 2008, the British woman [[Gayle Williams]] working for Christian UK charity '[[SERVE Afghanistan]]' – focusing on training and education for disabled persons – was murdered near Kabul. Taliban claimed they killed her because her organisation "was preaching Christianity in Afghanistan".<ref name="BBC, Oct008" /> In all 2008 until October, 29 aid workers, 5 of whom non-Afghanis, were killed in Afghanistan.<ref name="BBC, Oct008" />

In August 2010, the Taliban claimed that they murdered 10 medical aid workers while they were passing through [[Badakhshan Province]] on their way from Kabul to [[Nuristan Province]] – but the Afghan Islamic party/militia [[Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin]] has also claimed responsibility for those killings. The victims were six Americans, one Briton, one German and two Afghanis, working for a self-proclaimed "non-profit, Christian organization" which is named 'International Assistance Mission'. The Taliban stated that they murdered them because they were proselytizing Christianity and possessing which were translated into the Dari language when they were encountered. IAM contended that they "were not missionaries".<ref>[https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/08/hizbiislam_taliban_b.php 'Hizb-i-Islami, Taliban both claim killing 10 medical workers in northern Afghanistan']. FDD's Long War Journal, 7 August 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2017.</ref>

In December 2012, unidentified gunmen killed four female UN polio-workers in [[Karachi]] in Pakistan; the Western news media suggested that there was a connection between the outspokenness of the Taliban and objections to and suspicions of such '[[Polio vaccine|polio vaccinations]]'.<ref>[https://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-kill-4-female-polio-workers-pakistan-091459457.html "Gunmen kill 4 female polio workers in Pakistan"] (18 December 2012), Yahoo! News, The Associated Press. Retrieved 10 September 2013.</ref> Eventually in 2012, a Pakistani Taliban commander in [[North Waziristan]] in Pakistan banned polio vaccinations,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Walsh |first=D. |date=18 June 2012 |title=Taliban Block Vaccinations in Pakistan |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/world/asia/taliban-block-vaccinations-in-pakistan.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619231746/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/world/asia/taliban-block-vaccinations-in-pakistan.html |archive-date=19 June 2012 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=27 May 2013}}</ref> and in March 2013, the Afghan government was forced to suspend its vaccination efforts in [[Nuristan Province]] because the Taliban was extremely influential in the province.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Graham-Harrison |first=E. |date=12 March 2013 |title=Taliban stopping polio vaccinations, says Afghan governor |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/12/taliban-stopping-polio-vaccinations-afghanistan |access-date=27 May 2013}}</ref> However, in May 2013, the Taliban's leaders changed their stance on polio vaccinations, saying that the vaccine is the only way to prevent polio and they also stated that they will work with immunization volunteers as long as polio workers are "unbiased" and "harmonized with the regional conditions, Islamic values and local cultural traditions."<ref name="poliotelegraph">{{Cite news |last1=Babakarkhail |first1=Z. |last2=Nelson |first2=D. |date=13 May 2013 |title=Taliban renounces war on anti-polio workers |work=The Telegraph |location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10053981/Taliban-renounces-war-on-anti-polio-workers.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10053981/Taliban-renounces-war-on-anti-polio-workers.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=27 May 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=14 May 2013 |title=Taliban pledge support for Afghan polio campaign |publisher=[[CBC News]] |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/taliban-pledge-support-for-afghan-polio-campaign-1.1311957 |access-date=27 May 2013}}</ref>

{{further|History of the Jews in Afghanistan}}
During the first period of Taliban rule, only two known Jews were left in Afghanistan, [[Zablon Simintov]] and Isaac Levy (c. 1920–2005). Levy relied on charity to survive, while Simintov ran a store selling carpets and jewelry until 2001. They lived on opposite sides of the dilapidated Kabul synagogue. They kept denouncing each other to the authorities, and both spent time in jail for continuously "arguing". The Taliban also confiscated the synagogue's [[Torah scroll]]. However, the two men were later released from prison when Taliban officials became annoyed by their arguing.<ref>Adkins, Laura E. (31 October 2019). [https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/taliban-kicked-arguing-last-afghani-jews-out-of-prison-stole-torah-606457 "'Last Afghani Jews' kicked out of Taliban prison for being too annoying."] ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]''. Retrieved 5 October 2020.</ref> After August 2021, the last Jew Simintov and his relative left Afghanistan, ended centuries of Jewish presence in the country.<ref name="apnews">{{Cite web|date=2021-10-29|title=Woman now thought to be Afghanistan's last Jew flees country|url=https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-lifestyle-canada-religion-middle-east-893baa3e2849b0081882d06d1da07535|access-date=2021-11-12|website=AP NEWS}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Woman now thought to be Afghanistan's last Jew flees country|url=https://www.independent.ie/world-news/woman-now-thought-to-be-afghanistans-last-jew-flees-country-40996142.html|access-date=2021-11-12|website=independent|date=29 October 2021}}</ref>