close
close

Afghan refugee from Oklahoma remembers the fall of Afghanistan 3 years ago

Faramin Mikael
| Guest columnist

The word “freedom” may mean different things in different cultures around the world, but in Afghanistan it has always been the cornerstone of every citizen.

Most Afghans interpreted freedom as the right to breathe and survive. However, I must note that not everyone had the chance to breathe and survive as a significant number of civilians lost their lives due to the terrorist attacks carried out by the confused suicide bombers. These bombers could not distinguish between good and evil. They only thought about getting to paradise, which resulted in hundreds of innocent people losing their lives in the provinces, especially in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghan forces tried to fight the Taliban on the battlefield. And the media succeeded in trying to motivate people with programs promoting individual freedom, equality and democracy. As a result, the majority of Afghan youth (men and women, boys and girls) had the right to attend university after graduating from school. But the return of the Taliban marked the end of freedom and democracy as we knew it, and brought back religious fundamentalism, tribalism and a misogynistic era – after 20 years in a war-torn Afghanistan.

The Taliban had already entered Kabul in 1996 and ruled over the population there. Before that, the country had already experienced a bloody civil war between different mujahideen factions – a war that cost millions of lives and caused people to flee the country and seek refuge in neighboring Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, India and Russia. The Taliban were then involved in misinterpreting Islamic customs, forcing people to pray and blaming and beating women for not wearing a burqa or chadari, the strictest form of burqa worn only by Afghan women in the outskirts of Afghanistan.

More: Feroz Bashari, now a refugee in Oklahoma, was once the voice of his country’s government

In addition, during their five-year rule, the Taliban excluded Afghan women from attending school and university and did not allow them to work. At the same time, the Taliban only allowed men to wear traditional Afghan clothing. The economy collapsed, Afghan society died of hunger, and the whole country suffered. So it can be argued that the return of the Taliban after 20 years has taken Afghanistan back to dark times.

After the US-led invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, Afghans had a chance to rethink their perspectives and motivate themselves to live as normally as possible. The economy began to develop, and Afghan women and girls had the opportunity to raise their voices on international political, economic, social and cultural platforms. However, they had no idea that they would have a few more years to realize their dreams. When the Taliban re-entered Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, that time ran out. The time for equality, freedom and democracy preached in the media and by journalists was over, who did everything they could to fight against the Taliban's forgetfulness and villainy by exposing their crimes to the public.

Opinion: The Americans say the war in Afghanistan was not worth it. But Afghan women still need our support.

In world history, August 15 is the day on which India declared its independence from British rule in 1947. It was also the day on which Bahrain declared its independence. It was on this day that Syngman Rhee (1875-1965), former President of South Korea, proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Korea.

But on August 15, 2021, the entire nation in Afghanistan was shocked when Afghan girls lost their basic right to attend secondary school; some of the key government employees fled while the rest could no longer go to their workplaces out of fear; the economy began to collapse; women lost their freedom; media and journalists felt threatened; the former Afghan forces felt defeated and, most strikingly, democracy and freedom died. The Taliban killed them all at once.

Faramin Mikaeel is a former Afghan journalist and university lecturer in English language and literature. He now lives in Oklahoma City.

You may also like...