Zabul

Zabul is the Taliban's ancestral heartland—the province where founder Mullah Mohammad Omar belonged to the Hotak tribe, where the Ghilzai confederation that provides much of the movement's leadership originates. This deep Pashtun belt gave birth to the Taliban in the 1990s, making Zabul's poverty ironic: despite ideological centrality to the ruling regime, 60.8% of residents lived below the national poverty line as of 2021—one of the highest rates in Afghanistan.

The province suffered severe economic decline after the 2021 takeover. Night-time light data shows Zabul's economic activity remained substantially below 2020 baselines by 2023, alongside Kandahar, Helmand, and Kabul—provinces whose economies depended heavily on foreign aid and security spending that evaporated. The capital Qalat, linked by Highway 1 to Kandahar and Ghazni, offers income from agriculture, trade, and transport, but the provincial economy lacks the mineral resources, border trade corridors, or agricultural intensity that enable other provinces to adapt.

Infrastructure remains basic. The province relies on thermal power where the electrical grid hasn't extended. A new hospital built in early 2025 represents incremental development in a province that governance has consistently neglected despite its political importance. The pattern is familiar: ideological heartlands often remain economically peripheral because loyalty substitutes for investment. Zabul's 391,000 residents, mostly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, continue living in one of Afghanistan's poorest provinces while the movement they spawned controls the country. The contradiction defines post-2021 Afghanistan.