I was in Afghanistan 3 weeks before the Taliban took power. Here’s what people are getting wrong.

World

Published: 2021-08-23 11:59

Last Updated: 2024-03-18 14:55


Editor: Priyanka Navani

I was in Afghanistan 3 weeks before the Taliban took power. Here’s what people are getting wrong.
I was in Afghanistan 3 weeks before the Taliban took power. Here’s what people are getting wrong.

The following is an opinion piece and does not reflect the views of Roya News

When the US announced it would be withdrawing from Afghanistan, there were multiple reasons why- as a journalist- I wanted to get to the country as soon as possible. For starters, there was an overwhelming amount of chatter in the political and intelligence spheres about what the wider ramifications could be, but Afghan voices were largely left out of those discussions. What did they think of Americans going home? Secondly, born and bred in the US, I’ve had the ‘Good v Evil, America v. Afghanistan,’ savior narrative about the war instilled in me from a very young age. But what did trillions in ‘advancements’ and ‘defending freedom’ really look like on the ground?

On July 20th, I took off for Kabul, where I spent six days between the capital and the then-frontline with the Taliban in Kandahar, interviewing internally displaced people (IDPs); patients at hospitals overrun with war injuries; women’s activists; members of the Afghan Forces; and government officials, who, at the time, insisted they were in complete control of the situation. Two and a half weeks after I left, the Taliban took control over Kandahar, and, days later, Kabul. The story blew up, and Afghanistan became the lead report on every station.

A foreign journalist spending six days in Afghanistan doesn’t make her an expert, and if this article is positioned against Afghan voices, those voices should win. In my limited experience, here’s what I think is missing from the story.

-People are not only fleeing violence-

The videos out of Kabul Airport this past Sunday were devastating- hundreds of people desperately clinging to a US military plane in the hope it would save them from the encroaching Taliban. Scarred with the trauma from the Taliban rule in the 90s, residents had no reason to believe that their rule this time around would be any different- and, largely, we’ve yet to see if it will be, despite declarations that the group will respect women’s rights within the bounds of Sharia, and not seek retribution against those who supported US-backed forces.

But even if the Taliban makes good on its promises, there are plenty of other reasons why Afghans are fearful of Taliban rule. As governments around the world decide whether they will maintain relations with the Taliban- or, perhaps, decide what these relations could look like within anti-terror laws- Afghans are reckoning with the fact that this could mean being further cut off from the rest of the world.

I don’t just mean Afghans won’t be able to stop by the French Embassy for a visa for a Parisian vacation: critical humanitarian aid that comes in from across the globe is at risk if governments decide not to deal with the Taliban. The US, much of Europe, and the IMF have already cut off funding- some temporarily- the brunt of which is destined to be felt by the most vulnerable Afghans, who rely on such aid for basic necessities like bread and medicine, particularly in remote areas. Sanctions would exacerbate the economic situation even further. While all of this is being sqabbled over, the Afghani has been in a freefall since Sunday, and price hikes have already been seen on imported goods.

-It’s about more than a headscarf-

White feminism- in all its hair-splitting nuance- has made several calls since the fall of Kabul to ‘save Afghan women.’ Between burqa-clad women that often serve as the photo backdrop for these words (has anyone else seen the meme comparing the wardrobe of CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa before and after the takeover? The first photo showed her without a head scarf, the second in a full burqa, as if to display the differences in Taliban rule. Ward later had to clarify that the meme was ‘inaccurate,’ as the first photo was taken in a private compound, and she routinely wore a headscarf around Kabul prior to its fall), and the lack of conversation about women being able to work, go to school, or lead the country- as they’ve valiantly been doing- there lies the bleak understanding that what we are really saving the Afghan women from is covering their hair. First, it was a savior complex that began this ordeal for Afghanistan- certainly the master’s tools won’t dismantle its house. But second, to make the plight of Afghan women about hair is, at best and kindest, extremely reductive.

A lack of choice- particularly when it comes to women’s bodies- is always suffocating and intolerable, and I am most certainly not saying otherwise. But to deny that the same thing is to be said of a lack of freedom of movement or marital rights, or an inaccessibility to work or study, is similarly undeniable. The conversation surrounding what Afghan women stand to lose needs to be more wholesome and comprehensive, or we risk further marginalizing them, and, furthermore, being inconceivably tone deaf.

To quote an activist doctor in Kandahar who preferred to be left anonymous: “ In general, rights come from cultural expectations. We want the rights Islam grants us. Men cannot take them. Islam’s rights will bring us prosperity, not democracy.”

-The invasion of Afghanistan is a prime example of US imperialism-

In the most analytical debates on primetime television, anchors will go back-and-forth with an ex or current commander or politician for a lengthy discussion on- sometimes- why the US should have never invaded Afghanistan at all, or, more usually, how the withdrawal could have been done differently. None of the outcomes of these conversations go deep enough, because all evade the central reason why we’re having the conversation at all: US imperialism.

When the US invaded in 2001, there was the Taliban to take down. There is now the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Daesh, and dozens of other militant groups that residents say are stronger than ever before. Members of the Hazara community- which has long faced discrimination inside Afghanistan- said that they’ve never felt unsafe inside Kabul. Until now that is. Daesh attacks have killed hundreds in recent years, including, most recently, 85 at a girl’s school in May. And it’s not just Daesh- they say the US-backed government has done nothing to protect them, either.

People are unquestionably more vulnerable now than they were twenty years ago, but- at least for those who worked with NATO forces- it shouldn’t matter. The US promised to save them from these conditions with the Afghan SIV (special immigrant visa) program. Enacted in 2009, the purpose was meant to relocate at-risk Afghans, like journalists and translators, to the US. But delays and backlogs mean that nearly 100,000 people are left waiting in-country, far more than the number that have been processed over the last decade. With the US having waited until the last hour to fix the broken SIV system, helpless Afghans are now left waiting outside the Kabul Airport hoping to be repatriated to a US military base until their applications can be processed. Despite the horror scenes, President Biden remains that the delays were- at least in part- due to Afghans ‘not wanting to leave’- a telltale sign of the US attempting to backpedal its responsibilities after destabilizing the country.

While the nature of Western development projects is a whole other topic on its own, I would be remiss not to mention that there is very little to show for the trillions of dollars spent in Afghanistan over the last twenty years. USAID has constructed power plants, and “built and improved more than 2,000 kilometers of roads,” but it’s very difficult not to wonder ‘this is all that two trillion can buy?’ when on the ground, riding over dirt roads and watching young boys and girls sleep on plastic mats in government-run camps in Kandahar, which once hosted one of the largest military bases in the country. Largely, it’s not all money can buy- a lot of those trillions padded the pockets of defense contractors that did little to improve the lives of Afghan people.

But, then again, imperialism was never meant to.