UNESCO and the destruction of Afghan cultural heritage: How the Taliban’s return to power threatens the legitimacy of western-led international organizations

Earlier this year when the Taliban regained power for the first time in Afghanistan since the US-led military invasion of 2001, all attention was immediately centered on the fall of Kabul and Afghan government, as well as the devastating effects and tragedy that the Taliban’s reprise of power would have on the Afghan people. The outside world watched in horror the scenes at Kabul airport and the heartbreaking interviews with citizens fearing for their lives and the future of Afghanistan. Adding to this discourse at the time was the anger and frustration expressed towards the American government and other western governments at their inaction and inability to prevent the return of the Taliban. The twenty year long US military presence disappeared as did their supposed ‘success’ at quelling the Taliban’s dangerous presence. 

Now, as the world is starting to sadly adjust to the reality of the Taliban regime, greater analysis can be done to recognize the true levels of destruction that Afghanistan is experiencing, particularly the loss of their rich cultural heritage. Adding to the failure of the US military presence in Afghanistan is the failure of international institutions, such as UNESCO, to protect the country’s cultural heritage. 

The history of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage 

Afghanistan is home to a diverse and rich cultural heritage, thanks in large part to its history which includes a strong religious legacy of a variety of religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Christian and Jewish sects. Unlike other parts of the world, humans have inhabited Afghanistan for at least 50,000 years, living primarily in farming communities. Early records of human interaction in Afghanistan in the ancient world reveal the presence of the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great, and a wide variety of kingdoms that would be defined by both Buddhism and Islam. Modern day Afghanistan represents a land that is home to thousands of years of human interaction, leaving it with an impressive cultural heritage. Historical monuments in Afghanistan include the Bamiyan Valley that once held the great Buddha statues and the Minaret of Jam, the famous tower built by the Ghurid sultan. Yet now, Afghanistan risks losing its precious cultural heritage due to the Taliban, and their desire to rewrite the narrative of Afghanistan's history. 

Afghanistan has already lost much of its most important and oldest forms of cultural heritage. When the Taliban first took power in 1996 they horrified the outside world by destroying the Buddhist Bamiyan statues of the 6th century. The statues were regarded as examples of the oldest forms of religious monuments worldwide and were part of UNESCO’s many world heritage sites. The Taliban's decision to destroy these sacred, 600 foot tall monuments revealed their intense desire to rid Afghanistan of its Buddhist influence and anything that went against the terrorist organization’s strict rules and image. The Taliban did not only destroy ancient sites, they also attacked more recent forms of cultural heritage as well as Afghanistan’s contemporary art and culture. Museums, libraries, and music were all forms of culture that fell victim to the Taliban. Author and academic, Ahmad Rashid Salim describes the danger of cultural heritage destruction: “When you kill history, when you kill language, when you kill leaders, when you kill intellectuals, when you kill the religious and spiritual leaders of a society, you can do whatever you want with the people who no longer have a past.”

Now, the Taliban’s return to power threatens the few remaining ancient cultural heritage sites as well as the renaissance of culture that the Afghan people have worked so hard to protect and promote in recent decades. Indeed, it appears as though our worst fears are being realized. Following the Taliban’s initial return to power back in August of this year little was known of their intentions regarding the country’s cultural heritage. A Taliban spokesperson was quoted in February of 2021 on the subject of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage: “As Afghanistan is a country replete with ancient artifacts and antiquity, and that such relics form a part of our country’s history, identity and rich culture, therefore all have an obligation to robustly protect, monitor and preserve these artifacts...All Mujahideen must prevent excavation of antiquities and preserve all historic sites like old fortresses, minarets, towers and other similar sites...to safeguard them from damage, destruction and decay.” Officials within the Taliban promised to protect the country’s cultural heritage, including Kabul’s National Museum of Afghanistan; yet suspicions and distrust lingered given the events of previous decades. Tragically, it appears as though our worst fears are being realized: a recent video from early November shows the Taliban conducting a target practice at the limited remains of the Bamiyan Buddhas, despite their supposed promise to protect the cultural heritage site. This blatant disrespect for the cultural heritage site and disregard of their promise reveals the level of destruction that the Taliban is capable of. Afghanistan risks losing all of its influential cultural heritage, a tragedy that will be deeply devastating not just for the country, but for the world. 

UNESCO and the protection of world heritage sites 

Afghanistan is not the first country worldwide that risks losing its history and heritage due to a change in government and desire to redefine a national identity. The destruction of cultural heritage is a tragic part of every culture's history. However, the 20th century saw the first large-scale attempt to recognize the importance of cultural heritage worldwide and implement efforts to protect cultural heritage in all of its forms. 

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, was established with the goal of protecting and promoting peace and cooperation, specifically through cultural work. The UNESCO World Heritage Sites are one of the defining roles of the international organization. Founded thanks to the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the World Heritage List seeks to protect cultural heritage all across the world in the forms of monuments, buildings, geographical landscapes, and other forms of cultural sites. The UNESCO World Heritage List also labels sites that are in danger and must be protected. Heritage sites in danger can be labeled for a variety of reasons including environmental threats, political threats, or economic threats. Afghanistan is home to several cultural heritage sites on the World Heritage List, of which some, such as the Bamiyan Buddhas, have tragically been destroyed. The remaining cultural heritage sites in Afghanistan are high on the list of those in danger. 

Despite the global impact of UNESCO and worldwide recognition of the importance of protecting cultural heritage sites, UNESCO has been helpless in the face of Taliban destruction. While the international organization could evidently not prevent the return of the Taliban in power, their blatant failure to succeed in any form of protection towards Afghanistan’s cultural heritage sites threatens the legitimacy and future of the organization. In the face of the Taliban’s takeover, UNESCO was only able to call for the preservation of the historical sites, despite their implementation of a safeguard protection program with the Afghan Interior Ministry in 2004. Yet, even this protection program appears worthless now.  How can the world guarantee the protection of its cultural heritage when the one organization tasked with promoting and protecting cultural heritage cannot live up to its own goals?  The Taliban’s return to power and their decision to blatantly target Afghanistan’s cultural heritage sites reveals a far larger issue than the blatant destruction seen on the surface: The inability of international organizations to live up to their roles.

The recent failure of international organizations 

UNESCO is not the first international institution that has been unable to live up to its original promise and mission statement, many other prominent international organizations have been unable to meet their promises to the world for a variety of factors. Examples of failure within other international organizations include the European Union’s recent failure to implement western-European influence in Bosnia following the UN’s security council’s vote to end the EU’s peacekeeping mission there. Other more infamous failures include the UN’s tragic inaction throughout the Rwandan genocide, in which UN blue helemt troops evacuated foreigners, but failed the protect the horrifying mass murder of the Tutsi people. Despite UN recognition of their own blatant failure, the organization’s peacekeeping missions in recent decades reveal a clear and obvious struggle of the organization to live up to its goals, following its creation after World War II. 

The liberal international order in conflict

The destruction in Afghanistan and UNESCO inability to protect the country’s cultural heritage sites reveal another larger issue: the failure of the liberal international order. Following the devastating destruction caused by the Second World War, dozens of international institutions and organizations were established with the hope of promoting global cooperation and thus preventing war and mass conflict. Aimed with the goal of spreading liberal, western democracy throughout the world, the victors of World War II believed that through western-led international organization and western influence world wide, nation states would become democracies over time. Therefore making the world a safer place through nation states’ attempts to evolve into the traits encouraged by the western powers. 

The liberal international order is defined by its norms of multilateralism and its promotion of international institutions. The liberal international order has been a central theory that has defined world politics following the second of World War II. The theory was seen as the future of democracy and peace; it promised a more connected world of western-led power and economic, political, and cultural cooperation. However, recent decades have seen the failing of the liberal international order, as the theory could not account for the recent developments of bipolarity between China and the United States, or its failure in its countries of origin, caused by populist movements seen in the United Kingdom and United States. The rise of non-state actors and the rejection of Western values and traditional concepts of nation state sovereignty have also been central to the liberal international order’s decline. The threat of the Taliban stems not just from their capacity to cause mass violence, but also their rejection of the pillars of liberalism. 

International institutions were once established to be the defining pillars of the liberal international order. The establishment of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, or the World Health Organization all reveal how following their creation, western powers intended for the organizations to engage in multilateral cooperation worldwide, while being largely dominated and funded by the western powers themselves. However, the recent failures of many international institutions reflect the larger failure of liberalism as the defining theory of world order. 

UNESCO’s inability to act in Afghanistan does not just threaten their own stability and legitimacy as an organization designed in part to protect world heritage, but reveals the broader trend of failure within international institutions and the change in world order. The stability and protection once promised by these western led international institutions can no longer be guaranteed; the Taliban’s destruction of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage simply proves it.

World Heritage in the Medina in Fez, Morocco: Blessing or Curse?

The Medina in Fez, Morocco is a labyrinth of alleyways that intersect Moroccan culture, religion, and economy. It is a place like no other in the world, and indeed being inside the Medina walls is to be in an entirely different realm. To visitors, who are often left astounded at its sheer mass and intricacies, it may come as no surprise that the Medina is under UNESCO protection as a World Heritage site; it is truly unique. However, while the title of being a World Heritage site sounds beneficial, the Medina and its inhabitants may be suffering for it. Indeed, while some cultural buildings within the Medina have benefitted from rehabilitation, its inhabitants are suffering from a fresh wave of colonial prejudice. The original plans for the Medina’s rehabilitation relied heavily on French colonial literature about the Medina. Today, colonialism is coming back to life using UNESCO and other contributors’ money. Manifestations of these harmful policies include forcibly removing Medina inhabitants, moving traditional craft activities to outside the Medina walls, and proposing mandatory standards of hygiene. These policies inordinately affect the current Medina residents, primarily rural migrants from Morocco’s countryside seeking low-income housing. Thus, while the Ministry of Culture, which lays claim to the Medina, may enjoy UNESCO support and protection in its  rehabilitation efforts, it is doing little for the Medina’s inhabitants. This paper will investigate the initial need for UNESCO protection, the proposal submitted, and how the program has affected the Medina to measure the consequences and benefits of the program.

History of the Medina

The Medina has historically been a cultural institution of the Fessi people, and a neighborhood bursting at the seams with craftspeople, religious centers, and buildings that seem to defy earth’s gravitational pull. Yet, the Medina is not considered to be a desirable residence, and just outside the Medina walls, lay cleaner and wealthier neighborhoods, which once belonged to the French protectorate. Following the French withdrawal from Morocco in 1956, there was a mass exodus of wealthier Fessi to Ville Nouvelle (the French quarter). The Fessi who moved did so to improve their quality of life, and their economic status as the French quarter was much closer to economic opportunities not accessible from the Medina. In the spaces that the wealthy Fessi left in the Medina, rural migrants from the countryside soon entered. Many large medina homes were divided into apartments and the population of the Medina began to spike. From 1957-1982 the average yearly increase of residents was 8,000. As the numbers rose, so did the social tensions: the Fessi people had long prided themselves on their ‘city’ lifestyles and crafts, and consequently looked down on Moroccans from the countryside. A narrative of crisis in regards to artisanal crafts appeared in the 20th century, whereas it does not appear in pro-colonial texts which praised the Fessi crafts and craftspeople.  Much of this discourse is a thinly veiled commentary on the new social actors in the Medina and mimics discourse of the French, who delegated the Fessi as superior to all other Moroccans.  Therefore, discourse of pride for Medina crafts disappeared and, in its place, narratives of a crisis and anti- rural Moroccan emerged. The shift in discourse corresponds with the French departure from Morocco, a power vacuum that  allowed the Fessi to take control of the hierarchical narrative and used it to their advantage. However, the narrative of crisis that was employed to continue the set hierarchy became the public narrative and prompted outside intervention.  

Proposal

In the 1970s the Moroccan Department of Urbanism proposed building an access road through the middle of the Medina. This road would have fundamentally changed the structure of the Medina and a proposal to protect the Medina was quickly constructed. In 1976 Medina actors petitioned UNESCO to include the Medina as a World Heritage site. This plan included the “continuation and blossoming of the ensemble of the social, economic, cultural, and religious life that made the particular genius of the Medina”. Thus, the plan included rehabilitation, economic aid, and the continuation of a way of life provided by the Medina’s ecosystem. In this vain, the Medina’s residents were explicitly included in the proposal. Indeed, one such project called for action by the residents in facilitating its success. The “Fez Medina Rehabilitation Project” funded by the World Bank, aimed at restoring heritage and improving the quality of life in the Medina, through participation and collaboration with locals. Yet, while the projects and proposals asked for local participation and directly affected the population, many projects seemed to undercut their way of life. The UNESCO and the United Nations Development Program jointly created a ‘master plan’ for Morocco. This plan recommended a decrease in the Medina’s population through building new housing outside the Medina walls and moving residents. In addition, this plan supported removing merchandised crafts from the Medina and introducing standards of hygiene. At face value, these recommendations may not seem of mal intent, yet, behind the eloquence of the plan a lay proposal for a forced mass exodus, the removal of the essential economy of crafts from the Medina, and the forced imposing hygiene codes. These programs were approved because the background information provided to aid organizations portrayed the Medina in a colonialist manner and relied solely on French writing about the Medina. Such writing reflected the aforementioned narrative of crisis, helping to prompt intervention. The source texts also reflected the unfavorable attitude of the Fessi people towards rural Morrocans (an extension of colonial implemented higherarchies). The consideration and later implementation of these texts in UNESCO action in the Media thus created a resurgence of colonial policies based on discriminatory racism.

Direct colonial policy is evident in the Atlas of the Medina in Fez (1990). The Atlas was created at the request of UNESCO, by academics at the University of Fez. The Atlas described the population density changes in the Medina as well as what the authors called ‘ruralization’ or “the impregnation of the city with semi-rural modes of life marked by deplorable hygiene and lack of urban traditions”. Furthermore, this ‘ruralization’ was described as directly causing the decline of traditional social relations in the Medina. This information, provided to UNESCO and other programs, scapegoated the rural migrants for deteriorating Medina conditions and the resulting programs acted as punishments. In this manner, 50,000 inhabitants were relocated outside of the Medina, and more found new restrictions on their crafts and lifestyles. Thus, through the façade of aid and preservation, colonial era hierarchies have been revitalized and are directly impacting the Medina and its residents today.

Conclusion

UNESCO World Heritage sites have the purpose of aiding places under its protection through the rehabilitation of cultural sites and through economic benefits. However, in the case of the Medina in Fez, intervention has caused more harm than good. Medina residents are being placed, once again, under colonial age policies as various programs and plans orchestrated to help, actually support a harmful social hierarchy first established under French rule. For effective and truly beneficial change to occur in the Medina it will be necessary for air organizations and UNESCO itself to base aid on recommendations by Medina inhabitants. Until such collaboration is met, however, the title of World Heritage will bring severe consequences to Fez.