This is the latest in a series of conversations I have been having with an Afghan friend about life under the rule of the Taliban.
Dear David:
When my parents were young, in the 1980s, Afghanistan was immersed in a ruinous civil war. The Communist party was in power in Kabul. Before that war, the political and social situations had been relatively favorable for ethnic and religious minorities such as Hazara. So when all ethnic groups rebelled against the central government, Hazaras were among the leaders of the rebel groups. Some political analysts and historians believe that their rebellion against the central government was a big mistake.
My father says that when he was young, far fewer people were attending school. No girls’ schools even existed in our village. Clergymen told the villagers that schools were against Islam and said they should be avoided.
When my father was in school in Bamian, the rebels burned the school down. My father returned to his hometown. Then he joined the Islamist rebel groups himself and fought for several years against the central government. The Soviet Union sent troops to defend the communist government, which had the effect of unifying the ethnic groups against the foreign army.
During the years that followed. the Mujahaddin emerged, partly funded by the Americans, and they eventually spawned Al Qaeda and the Taliban. We all know the rest of the story – 9/11, the American response, 20 years of war, and the American withdrawal last year.
In many ways Afghanistan has never recovered from the events of my father’s youth. One way or another, we have been at war ever since.
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