Two days ago, a close friend in Afghanistan told me Kabul seems like a graveyard. Silenced. Helpless. And hopeless. This reminds me of the...
Two days ago, a close friend in Afghanistan told me Kabul seems like a graveyard. Silenced. Helpless. And hopeless.
This reminds me of the empty streets and hopelessness during my time under the Taliban’s rule in the late 1990s. People sold their household belongings on the streets of Kabul and other cities to feed their families or pay for their travel costs to leave the country. Education for girls above year six was banned. Women were not allowed to work.
During those five years from 1996-2001, the Taliban established a theocratic totalitarian regime. After the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the rapid demise of the republic this week, Afghans are concerned the group will revert to its old policies and they will lose their guaranteed, fundamental rights.
Perhaps people are right. No sign of change is yet apparent from the Taliban.
Women are the most concerned. Following the recent fall of Herat, the third-largest city in Afghanistan, women and girls were told by the Taliban to go back to their homes when they went to work or university.
A prominent journalist in a city in the north of Afghanistan told me that a Talib came to his house four times asking where he was. He was safe in...
