View from Teheran: To Defeat The Taliban, Pakistani Feudalism Must die

Pakistan has to uplift its underprivileged areas, which are the main breeding grounds for the militancy. Unemployment, poverty, lack of quality schools, massive corruption, a low standard of living, and the millennia of debilitating feudalism have accelerated the Talibanization of the country. One reason why so many people have joined various Taliban groups in the Swat Valley -- an area that is home to 1.3 million people with fertile land, orchards, vast plots of timber, and lucrative emerald mines -- is that the Taliban have successfully exploited the profound differences between wealthy landlords and their landless tenants. The Taliban seized power from about 50 big landlords who ruled the Swat Valley and then organized the long-suffering peasants into armed bands. The entire landowning clique fled the Valley, and the Taliban offered the economic spoils to the landless peasants of Swat Valley.

Now is the time to end the feudal landlords’ domination of Pakistan, which has put workers and peasants in a subservient position and kept the middle class out of the highest circles of power.
Feudalism and the Taliban are Pakistan’s evil twins. Pakistan has to finally eradicate feudalism to end extremism and enter the modern world.

Pakistan must introduce land reforms, build a more vibrant middle class, reduce poverty, improve the education system, build roads, implement infrastructure projects, and establish industry in order to give people more opportunities for a better life. Otherwise, feudalism and intelligence agencies will only create more Frankenstein monsters in the future, long after the Taliban forces are gone.