[NOTE: This is the ninth letter from a young Afghan friend about life in his country since the Taliban took over.]
Dear David:
Bakhti [a pseudonym] is a friend of mine who is 24 now. Two years ago, she was the top student in her university class in Kabul, graduating with a degree in political science. While we were students, she always motivated me by her speeches.
Despite the extreme hardship in Kabul of that time, which included suicide attacks and frequent blasts, Bakhti remained full of hope and ambition. She was competitive and driven. To maintain her position at the top of the class, she studied late every night, read a book every week, and even wrote book reviews to share with me. We frequently debated, agreeing on some issues while disagreeing about others. She talked about her ambitions to find a job after graduation with a good salary.
We often walked together in the streets of Kabul, talking about various subjects, taking photos, listening to music, and reciting poetry.
When I called her a few days ago to ask how she was doing, she described for me the day the Taliban entered Kabul: it was a Sunday, the hands of the clock stood at eleven in the morning, and everyone was running, fleeing from the invaders. The moment seemed frozen in time, the sunlight suspended, nature in a vacuum – if there was motion from the birds or the leaves on the trees, nobody saw it.
A month has passed since that terrible day, and Bakhti says life is not getting any easier. Her world has lost its color. Friendships are a thing of the past. Women have covered their faces, imprisoned behind the walls of their houses. There is nothing they can do but mourn their lost liberty. They feel stateless and homeless.
Our dreams of salvation at the hands of the Americans were false. In the end, America did nothing but transfer power from one Talib to another. The safety we felt when the Americans were here was naive. Would it have been better if we had not planted the seeds of hope in our hearts?
The Taliban, the enemies of our peace and advancement, killed us at home, on the road, at school, at university, wherever possible. They blew up our schools and universities, massacred us in the classroom. Perhaps foolishly, we kept going back – to our schools, universities and aspirations.
Somehow we forgot that we were living in a country with people like Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban, where the Afghan people were nothing but a means to power. We were sacrificed for their goals.
In my hopes for a better tomorrow, I would run to my classes at the university through bullets and explosions, always in fear of persecution. Eventually I graduated, and thought I had succeeded, with a job, an income, and my independence. I had friends to talk to, a full life of work and socializing. I felt free, the wind in my hair.
But the takeover of our country by the Taliban has changed all that, for me and for Bakhti. Recently she went to a demonstration with her friends, demanding rights for the women of Afghanistan, but they were met with whips and threats of even worse violence. Now she stays home all day, often crying. She feels her voice has been silenced.
It is an indescribable pain when a person loses her job, education, freedom and everything she has lived for, overnight. Bakhti feels her dreams have died.
***
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