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It's been nearly 25 years since the start of the U.S- led invasion of Afghanistan. NPR returns to Kabul to see how Afghans, now back under Taliban rule, are coping with the legacy of that 20 year war.
Transcript
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush vowed quick revenge. What followed was a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and the ousting of the armed Islamic group that held power there, the Taliban. It was forced out over its support of Osama bin Laden and his militant group, al-Qaida. The war lasted 20 years and ended with the promise that the U.S. would end its forever wars. NPR's D. Parvaz is recently back from Afghanistan, whose more than 40 million people are still processing those events. She has this report.
D PARVAZ, BYLINE: The Kabul of 2026 looks dramatically different than before the Taliban takeover of 2021. Gone are most of the blast walls and barbed wire that choke the streets of the Afghan capital, and with them, the sense of unease that another Taliban attack will strike a police station, a government office or a hotel.
ABDUL JABBAR AKBARI: (Non-English language spoken).
PARVAZ: Abdul Jabbar Akbari is a political analyst who focuses on security issues, and he tells me that the war destabilized security in Afghanistan, bringing the armies of multiple nations, each with their own objectives, into the country.
AKBARI: (Non-English language spoken).
PARVAZ: Even with periodic attacks by insurgent groups, Akbari says that with the return of the Taliban and the restoration of the Islamic Emirate in 2021, security was once again reinstated.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: The Taliban went further to say that the attack on this residential area in Kabul this morning was in retaliation for...
PARVAZ: As we hear in that BBC report, the Taliban were responsible for the bulk of those attacks all around the country. And now in the seat of power, they're maintaining security.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Taliban fighters have reached Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, and the Afghan president has fled the country.
PARVAZ: There was a lot of uncertainty with the return of the Taliban, but they aren't foreign occupiers, after all, says Obaidullah Baheer. He lectures on civil society and democracy at the American University in Afghanistan, where he continues to teach male and female students online. He tells me that the September 11 attacks have a deep significance to Afghans.
OBAIDULLAH BAHEER: It was not only the beginning of the war on terror, but a collective blaming of Afghans for terrorism and attacks against the United States. It brought the United States upon us with a vengeance, where all human rights and international law was eroded.
PARVAZ: The human cost of the two-decades-long conflict was immense for all the warring parties but in particular for Afghans. At least 169,000 were killed, and roughly 6 million were displaced internally. But the Taliban didn't just bring security. They also brought back a raft of social restrictions, even if most aren't as severe as their 1990s edicts. On the day of the militant group's return, NPR heard concerns from Afghan women, like Freshta Karim (ph), about those restrictions.
FRESHTA KARIM: Their war against women is at the core of their ideology. If they don't have it anymore, they're not going to be Taliban.
PARVAZ: Five years later, women occupy whatever space they can. They move through cities, solo or in groups. They're on television on news shows and game shows. They also hold a limited number of government jobs. Still, girls and women remain barred from education beyond the sixth grade, as well as most of the career options previously open to them. And for many of them, the improvement in security is of little comfort.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
PARVAZ: That's the voice of a counselor who asked NPR not to use her name, fearing retribution from the Taliban. She tells me, oh, for men, this is without a doubt a favorable situation. They can go to different cities, socialize at any hour in peace, and instead of one wife, they can take four. They can take advantage of the difficult situation women are now in. She explains the strict control over virtually every aspect of their lives is leading to a spike in depression.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
PARVAZ: She says, "in Afghanistan, women and all of their needs have been suppressed. A woman can't go to school to learn anything. She can't go to the mosques, she can't wear what she wants. She can't marry who she wants." While there's hope some social restrictions will be reversed, says Obaidullah Baheer, he adds that the Taliban also have legitimacy for many Afghans.
BAHEER: It's becoming evident for the younger Afghan intellectuals that the Taliban were on the right side of history.
PARVAZ: The Afghan government formed after the fall of the Taliban was seen as corrupt, says Emma Sky. She's the director of Yale University's International Leadership Center, and she also served in Afghanistan as a political advisor to the NATO forces.
EMMA SKY: I think the U.S. tried to do too much in Afghanistan. To think that it could impose democracy, to create a state in its image - I think it was far too ambitious in what it set out to do.
PARVAZ: This fostered resistance among Afghans, Sky says. And among the international community, where the U.S. had a tremendous amount of support following the attacks, things also eventually shifted.
SKY: We just don't see that unity today.
PARVAZ: She says that the U.S.'s response to September 11, from the invasions of Afghanistan to Iraq to torture and extraordinary rendition, all undermine the post-war rules-based order and fueled the democratic backsliding that we are seeing today. So after two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, where over 6,200 U.S. service members and contractors were killed and over $2 trillion were spent, what is the lesson for the U.S.? I put this question to Sky as the U.S. finds itself locked into a monthslong conflict with Iran.
SKY: Interventions have unintended consequences, and none of us imagined what they might be 25 years ago.
PARVAZ: D. Parvaz, NPR News.
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