Since trading the battlefield for Afghanistan's halls of power, some Taliban members have also swapped their weapons for pens to tell their version of the 20-year conflict with Western forces, who they accuse of distorting "reality".

A flood of books has been written, mostly from a Western perspective, about the war between the US-led forces that invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks until the Taliban's return to power in 2021.

But in the years since, a proliferation of writings by Taliban figures -- praising their exploits and the achievements of the "Islamic Emirate" -- is now the reigning narrative in Afghanistan.

"No matter what foreigners have written... they have largely ignored the reality of what happened to us and why we were forced to fight," author Khali

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