The Taliban gave everyone a day off as they issued a national holiday to celebrate one year of harsh rule in Afghanistan.
Carloads of armed Taliban troops have been seen as they career around the country's cities to celebrate their continued rules.
Waving the country's flag, members of the militant group continue to see they retaking of the country as a glorious victory.
One fighter, Niamatullah Hekmat, told France24: "We fulfilled the obligation of jihad and liberated our country.
"The time when we entered Kabul, and when the Americans left, those were moments of joy."
NATO troops began their withdrawal from the country on August 15, 2021, in heart-wrenching scenes that were broadcast around the world to a shocked viewing public.
The Hamid Karzai International Airport in the capital of Kabul witnessed images of desperate people clinging to planes as they sought to escape the onrush of the advancing Taliban forces.
The Afghan National Army were unable to hold back the Taliban without the hope of NATO forces from around the world, including the UK and the US.
Many Afghans have taken to Twitter with the #FreeAghanistan trend to continue to protest the lost democracy that existed uneasily after the miliant group were ousted in the early 2000s.
A strict theocracy has now taken its place.
One defiant Afghan journalist told the Mirror that "dreams for a better future were shattered."
They said: "Even now, when I think about losing everything in the blink of eye, it makes me weep. Our generation may never recover from the trauma we experienced.
"Afghanistan is taken back to what it was two decades ago, despite the investment in blood and treasure by the international community.
"Right now, Afghanistan is turning to a breeding ground for international terrorism. People have no rights whatsoever under the tyranny of the Taliban."
Those who played a part in the former government or worked with NATO embassies or military forces face severe threats against their safety or even their lives.
The scale of the financial tasks facing the Taliban is significant and the US currently refuses to give them the £7.4 billion in central bank reserves.
Development aid has also been massively cut and governments around the world protest the Taliban's approach to the rule of law.
One significant regression in the country has been the change approach to women in society.
Women, most Taliban officials believe, do not need extensive education and should not be in positions of power.
Those who rebel against such rules are clamped down upon harshly.
Girls are currently banned from education from after when they are 10-11 years old, or year six, the years where they are most vulnerable to societal normas in Afghanistan.
Amena Arezo, a doctor from southeastern Ghazni province told Reuters: "We are all heading to darkness and misfortune.
"People have no future, especially women."
Without developmental aid, around 25 of the 38 million people living in the country are now in poverty.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that up to 900,000 are jobless in this year alone.
While many Afghans argue security on the streets has largely returned, problems also exist regarding how the law is implemented.
The de facto government can have its decision overturned by the spiritual leadership based in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-biggest city and considered the Taliban's spiritual home.
Afghan constitutional expert Zalmai Nishat said: "The most obvious problem is there is no uniformity of law
"Now it's at the whims of the 'leader in Kandahar and also at the whims of those who are leading on his behalf... that's the problem, it's the unpredictability."
