The world is looking away. Islamists have ruled Afghanistan for more than a year, but interest in the issue has waned in Germany and elsewhere. While Google search volume for keywords like “Afghanistan” and “Taliban” shot through the roof around their takeover of power in August 2021, there was hardly a dent by the first anniversary in August 2022.
Despite this, journalists continue to try to report from the country. Four of them, who felt the pulse of the Islamist state in the most varied of ways, talk about it here. Not everyone sees the lack of international attention as a problem.
In his work, the Austrian-Afghan journalist documents, questions and criticizes in particular the actions of the western coalition in Afghanistan. The 31-year-old published his bestseller “The Longest War – 20 Years of War on Terror” with Westend-Verlag, and he is also the founder of a virtual memorial for civilian victims of drone attacks. As a freelance journalist, he publishes in “Spiegel”, “NZZ” and “Zeit”, among others.
A year after the Taliban returned, public interest in Afghanistan has plummeted as the country is increasingly isolated. And by that I mean, above all, the 30 to 40 million people who continue to live in this country. For these people, the Taliban is not a choice but a reality they must face. Not everyone can or wants to get out of the country. People are caught between the Taliban and the international community, which continues to enforce sanctions and wants to punish people collectively for the outcome of the war.
I think that’s absurd. The outcome of the war was predictable in many respects, especially since the Americans’ talks with the Taliban also contributed to their return. The way the war was waged, the political mistakes, that has to be dealt with properly. You also have to face the uncomfortable truths and show insight.
For me personally, it was amazing on my recent trip to Afghanistan how much Kabul has changed. The sight of the Taliban in the modern cafés where Kabul’s youth used to sit is almost funny. Before the Taliban returned, many people had no idea about them at all. The older ones knew her from the 90s, the younger ones only from stories.
Of course, it was known that they were also responsible for many suicide attacks in Kabul. The situation there is therefore particularly paradoxical. For now, the Taliban live and rule in and from Kabul, including members of the Haqqani wing. Today’s interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is one of the most wanted Taliban of the last 20 years. For many people in Kabul it is a certain perversion that such guys are now responsible for security in the city.
Other things cause conflict as well. For one thing, most of the Taliban fighters come from the countryside and are completely unfamiliar with life in the cities. On the other hand, there is a linguistic clash: on this trip, I really noticed for the first time how few people in Kabul speak Pashto, even though it is one of the official languages in Afghanistan. The Taliban are mainly Pashtuns.
It should also not be overlooked that many of the Taliban are themselves suffering from the situation in the country. Ordinary soldiers have not received their wages for months. You can see how different Taliban groups are clashing. Because the higher-ranking older people benefit from the new balance of power – but not the foot soldiers. I was involved in a fundraiser in Kabul, and the Taliban didn’t object either. However, one of them came up to me and asked why I wouldn’t help them too. After all, they had nothing to eat either.
The WELT correspondent has been reporting from Athens since 2021, with a focus on Greece, the Balkans and Turkey. On the anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of power, she researched in Kabul. She also sent her assessment directly from there.
This is my first time as a journalist in Afghanistan. It’s not that easy to get a visa. Not all embassies issue one, not all countries work with the Taliban. I got mine in Dubai and when I landed here in Kabul I had to go to the Foreign Ministry straight away.
There I was given permission to report, a kind of accreditation, a signed letter with a stamp that I always have to carry around with me and show at checkpoints, for example. There are very many of them. Actually, cars with women shouldn’t be stopped out of respect, and in fact I’m mostly left alone when I’m out with my local colleague.
I met a young Talib here, a man in his late 20s. He works for the secret service, I asked him a little about his personal life. He told me that he is married twice, has five sons and one daughter. The daughter is of elementary school age and also goes to school, in the first grade.
I asked this talib what he wanted for his daughter. He said, well, he could see her becoming a doctor. Then I asked him how that would work if his daughter was no longer allowed to go to school after the 7th grade. He replied that he wished that his daughter could one day practice this profession. But if the Taliban leadership told him tomorrow to take his daughter out of school, he would do it immediately.
Reporting in Afghanistan is very limited. It is not possible to report freely here. For example, when there are attacks, the Taliban do not allow journalists to go to the scene. They are often silent about the number of victims, they are simply very opaque. A local journalist told me that in such situations she is often insulted and even attacked. At the same time, there are no right rules. There is no media law or one that guarantees access to information.
When there are protests, a few months ago there were several women’s protests, the Taliban are incredibly restrictive, firing their guns in the air, arresting protesters and journalists. They want to control exactly what is reported and what is not, so they react extremely in these moments. There are red lines, but you don’t know where they are. This can vary depending on the talib, mood and situation. This makes it very difficult to report reliably here. I haven’t had any problems myself, but local journalists in particular are struggling.
I recently met a former prosecutor who worked for the former Afghan government and also sent the Taliban to prison. Now she’s in hiding, was threatened on the phone; she believes it was one of the men she convicted. Her evacuation last year fell through because her flight was scheduled for the day an ISIS attacker blew himself up at Kabul airport.
That affected me very much, especially because in Germany attention to Afghanistan has decreased significantly. Also for women like this former prosecutor. I can’t give her name because she’s in danger.
We must not forget these people. We fought in Afghanistan for 20 years. And the people we worked with there, local Bundeswehr staff or the ex-public prosecutor – they helped make this mission possible. Many of these people stayed behind. I don’t understand why we aren’t more committed to helping these people.
Christoph Reuter studied Islamic Studies, Political Science and German Studies. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Baghdad and Kabul since 2003. His book “My Life is a Weapon” about suicide bombers was published by C. Bertelsmann a year earlier. Reuter has written for “GEO”, “Stern” and “Zeit”, among others, and since 2011 he has worked as a reporter in the foreign department of “Spiegel”.
First of all: We no longer find out very much about what is happening in the country, about the situation beyond Kabul (and even there). The Taliban are busy blocking access to terrorist attack sites, for example. Released prisoners are massively intimidated not to talk to journalists about what happened; many people are afraid.
What we all feared, the tide of revenge and killings, seems to have happened only on a small scale. Again: We know far too little. On the other hand, large massacres would hardly have remained secret if many of those threatened could emigrate legally unhindered.
The greater danger seems to be the lack of economic prospects, the almost complete demolition of the billions in payments from abroad. The Taliban have no plan how to consolidate the country. Food supply is increasingly being taken over by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Without them, millions of people would starve. But the world community is feeding a radical regime with it.
The situation in Afghanistan is not a natural disaster that promises the greatest possible attention and the greatest, clear benefit. It’s not a war either, but a deeply muddled, very specific situation. Public awareness in Germany is pretty much irrelevant to the situation there. The great attention paid to the country in the 20 years up to 2021 did not save it either.
No power in the world would warm to a military intervention in Afghanistan, so it is no longer a threat. The Taliban are used to attacks by the United States, and trade sanctions have been dropped due to a lack of trade. So how do you push, for example, to let girls go back to high school? There is little.
The Taliban rule the entire country, the war has stopped, which is a value in itself. But beyond that, the new rulers have maneuvered themselves into oblivion with their dictatorial claims, their ban on secondary schools for girls and most recently by hosting al-Qaeda boss Aiman al-Zawahiri. There will be no international recognition for the Taliban.
But simply ignoring Afghanistan, as the West did after 1989, carries immense risk. The situation could get much worse, the country plunge back into civil war. Pakistan, the Taliban’s longstanding protecting power, would probably not be reluctant to see that. Nothing would be more inconvenient for Islamabad than a truly independent Afghanistan.
However, after all the failures of the last 20 years, it is difficult to say what a promising form of external influence might look like. Ultimately, it will be up to Afghans to transform their country from within. Painful and unfair given the disappointed expectations we raised. But the sober conclusion of the experiences.
In August 2021, the 26-year-old fled her native Afghanistan, where she had worked as a journalist and, among other things, hosted a TV show for children. After several stations, she finally ended up in the US state of Oklahoma. There she is now studying in Norman at the University of Oklahoma on a journalism scholarship.
It is very disappointing that a year after taking power it has become almost normal for a terrorist group to rule a country. No one, no politician, no western country really cares that the Taliban are here now. The Taliban not only have the blood of Afghans on their hands, but also the blood of people from the West.
We live in the 21st century and girls are no longer allowed in high schools in Afghanistan. Women are no longer allowed to work. In many situations, women journalists are no longer allowed to appear in public. The educated class has left the country or been imprisoned.
There’s only one way to be safe in Afghanistan, and that’s not to say a word about the Taliban. There is no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no education, no work, no security. But a lot of poverty, danger and oppression.
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