Namrata Sharma

The plight of the Afghan people trying to flee their own country by hanging on to the US aircraft at Kabul airport after the Taliban siege of the city has left me heart-broken. The highlights on the global news channels with regard to the deteriorating political stability in Afghanistan have reminded me of my visit to Afghanistan in 2008 where I conducted a training on microfinance.

During my visit to Kabul, the hotel where I was put up at was, to my pleasant surprise, filled with Nepali workers. All the staff, except the owner of the hotel, were Nepali men.

These Nepali workers shared with me issues that the Nepali workers were facing there. They said those who had come through the legal process mostly got work, but many did not have work, especially those who had been lured into Afghanistan by hiring agents with fake documents.

According to Nepali workers, many Nepalis without jobs were hiding in the jungles where they were probably victims of both physical and sexual violence. During my stay in Kabul I also encountered many Nepali staff working for the international organisations. Now, as this beautiful country is once more under the Taliban’s rule, I am wondering about the fate of all the Nepalis working there.

Plight of Nepalis

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are about 1500 Nepalis working in the formal sector. The Ministry has said that these Nepalis will most probably be sent back home by their organisations. However, my concerns are for the workers like those I met in the hotel I was staying at and those who were stranded without proper documents due to the greed of agents who took them there ensuring work but not fulfilling their promises.

In Kabul, I was impressed by the hospitability of the Afghan people. Although a security guard was always with me when I travelled around, I did manage to visit and see how the local markets worked. The ruins of several wars were visible.

Like Nepal, Afghanistan is a landlocked and mountainous country. It is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north, and China to the northeast. The country has witnessed many armed conflicts and invasions including those by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviets, and in 2001 by the US-led collaboration with the NATO-allied countries.

During the late 19th century Afghanistan became the buffer state between the Great Game between British India and Russian Empire. The British colonisation and creation of border demarcation by the Durand Line created tension between Afghanistan and the Soviet Federation leading to a Soviet-Afghan war in 1980 against the Mujahedeen rebels.

The various external military invasions coupled with the internal jihad rebels are speculated to have created a fertile ground for the rise of the internal Islamic fundamentalist group the Taliban. By 1996 most of the country was captured and under control of the Taliban who ruled it as a totalitarian regime until 2001. From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban enforced a strict interpretation of the Sharia or the Islamic law.

When I saw the ruins in Kabul it had made me think of all the scars left behind by the military invasions from outside. I also got to listen to the scars that the Islamic militant rule had had in the hearts of the beautiful people, especially women, of this rugged but lovely country. Afghanistan is a member of the United Nations, and several international bodies. So how did the country come to this stage? Since 2001, when the US and NATO-aligned armed forces entered Afghanistan there have been several changes in the country, including the establishment of new businesses, development activities and above all empowerment of women and marginalised communities.

Youth have started getting education in the western world, professionals have started interacting with global community and most remarkably women have started openly leading organisations and excelling in several professions.

But now, as reported by the New York Post, Zarifa Ghafari, a 27- year- old first woman Mayor in Afghanistan leading the city of Maidan Sharh is quoted saying, “I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family.” Also, via social media and interaction with leading media like BBC, CNN, among others, several women are sending pleas requesting for help as they fear that the Taliban will torture and kill them.

The women professionals are the ones who are feared to be targets of the Taliban as they have always opposed the empowerment of women which they see as a bad influence of the West and against Sharia.

Human cruelty

What is happening in Afghanistan is the manifestation of human cruelty. The atrocities of the Taliban are reflected openly. Equally, the rest of the world, especially the US and its allied NATO countries who went into Afghanistan in 2001 but are leaving in hordes in 2021, have left the country in a shambles.

The question here is what has empowerment and development brought to this country during the 20-year war with the Taliban’s guerilla force, where more than a trillion US dollars were spent to prop up the Afghan armed forces and to stabilise the political system. But within a few days the government and its armed forces set up by the US has become non-functional.

A country needs to be run, owned and developed by, for, and with their people.

The interventions that Afghanistan has had for centuries by external forces and the rise of the fundamentalist mindset within has torn the country several times. This also is an alert to the global citizen that a country needs to develop on its own and be able to have a sustainable plan that can function with or without external forces.

(Namrata Sharma is a senior journalist and women rights activist. namrata1964@yahoo.comTwitter handle: NamrataSharmaP)