This is the fifth installment in a Washington Examiner series detailing the struggles of Afghan activists and allies affected by the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Every day, I receive desperate pleas from Afghans who are stranded, through no fault of their own, in a country ruled by the ruthless Taliban. Most are special immigrant visa applicants stuck in a backlog that is likely to endure for years. Others have Priority-2 or Priority-1 referrals to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and cannot be processed while in Afghanistan or have applied to the stagnant humanitarian parole visa program.
The most heartbreaking missives come from Afghans who have no prospect of leaving their transformed country, where girls are again forbidden from attending most school and college, mass famine is impending, child marriage is soaring, and the Taliban are arresting dissenters and killing former enemies. These are several of their stories. All names have been changed to protect them from reprisal.
In the years prior to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Obaid survived two separate explosions during his commute to work. Obaid said the Taliban now force him to perform his prior job as a government employee with no pay and sometimes subject him to violent assaults. “Most [Afghans] say, ‘I wish I [was] never born,'” he lamented.
Before she became a medical doctor, Sima gained notoriety as a journalist who vocally condemned child marriage and supported women’s rights. After the Taliban threatened Sima by name, promising to shoot her in the head, she left her home province for Kabul. Now, Sima feels it is simply a matter of time before the Taliban learn about her true identity as a journalist. She said stories of people “disappearing with no trace … keep [her] awake at night.”
Because Sima’s husband is on forced leave, her income is vital. As a doctor, the Taliban allow Sima to work part-time, but her husband must escort her to and from the office. At seven months pregnant, she is especially anxious about her unborn daughter’s future. “I do not want my girl to be born into a society where she is not allowed to go to school or where her rights are suppressed,” Sima said. “I get depressed just thinking about it.”
As the vice president of a construction company, Mohibullah supplied business equipment to a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Because the Taliban are aware of his business activities, Mohibullah said they call him an infidel and threaten to kill him and his family. The subcontractor Mohibullah worked with refuses to give him a Priority-2 referral to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, making Mohibullah increasingly concerned for the future.
As a young woman in Afghanistan, Rabia took a sewing job during the day to pay for her first years of night school. After the U.S. withdrawal, Rabia tried in vain to get a visa or referral from the private companies that once employed her. Stuck in her home, Rabia said she “had dreams that [she] think[s] disappeared.” She echoes a sentiment shared by many of her desperate countrymen when she tells me “death [is] better than this life.”
In a Jan. 19 press conference, President Joe Biden said he makes “no apologies for the way” he withdrew from Afghanistan. “Do I feel badly about what’s happening as a consequence of the incompetence of the Taliban? Yes, I do … I feel badly about a whole range of things around the world.”
Biden may not understand that Taliban competence is at the root of our failed withdrawal and the disaster unfolding in Afghanistan. Afghans, however, live every day with the misery that Biden’s callous decision-making has wrought.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer in the Detroit area.
