Taliban conflict in Afghanistan impacts Redhawk’s families

Andre Klimke (Free to use under the Unsplash License)

The Taliban’s swift coup of the Afghan government was imminent. A conflict that had been brewing for decades finally resulted in the fall of the Afghan government resulting in many families effected including ones on campus.

“Since many people are immigrating, [my family back in Iran] try to be supportive and kind because they’ve been through a lot since the Taliban began taking control of Afghanistan,” Torabi said.

The Taliban’s swift coup of the Afghan government was imminent. A conflict that had been brewing for decades finally resulted in the fall of the Afghan government.

To Asama K.*, an Afghan friend of Torabi’s mom, many Afghan people felt betrayed by their president when he ran away to the United Arab Emirates along with his family.

“When our president betrayed his own country, how [could] we expect more from foreign leaders to care about Afghanistan,” Asama K. said. “The people who are a part of the government will likely face the most pressure, and this will eventually expand to businesses as well since Afghan Afghani is going to lose the value it had and become paltry.”

Before 2001, the Taliban’s control in Afghanistan had been detrimental to women’s rights. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, women’s rights had taken a turn for the better. Many women around the world celebrated this victory along with Afghan women, however, it was short-lived. Now that the Taliban has taken over again, women’s rights have come into question and fear is spreading.

“Women are the ones in pressure because they lost their freedom from the moment the Taliban started ‘conquering’ Afghanistan,” Asama K. said. “They are required to wear a hijab, they can’t have their own gatherings, and basically many things in their [lives] are controlled by their husbands or fathers.”

Another problem arises as there have been many displaced refugees looking for a safe place to go.

“Iran is accepting immigrants from Afghanistan [even though] Iran also has a lot of internal problems right now like the chaos of [Covid-19 cases] [which is] exponentially growing,” Romina’s mother Neda Torabi said. “[Neighboring] countries also try to help those migrating from Afghanistan, but Afghanistan’s government is responsible for all this, and [the] one thing that the president of Afghanistan thought of was to run away and leave his people behind, so what [could] other countries possibly do? There are also countries like China who are trying to make peace with [the] Taliban rather than fighting against [the] injustice, which makes the Taliban more powerful than they already are, and the pathway [to] peace in Afghanistan farther.”

* – Some names have been changed at the request of those interviewed.