Jean-François Cautain & Sonia Cautain
On August 15, 2024, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan celebrated the third anniversary of the takeover of Kabul, ending years of conflict and the failure of twenty years of Western intervention and failed nation-building.
Thirty years ago, we were in Afghanistan, witnessing the rise of the Taliban and their first seizure of power in 1996. As a family, we also experienced the hope of the early years of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan that followed it after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Since 2022, we have returned to Kabul, trying, in our modest way, to bring support to an Afghan population severely damaged by over forty years of violence. We will not attempt here to analyze the causes of the fall of the previous regime and the return of the Taliban. History will apportion the blame among Afghans and foreigners alike and determine the victims and perpetrators.
Our aim, on this third anniversary of the second Emirate, is to report our impressions of a country that we have loved for decades and help ensure that Afghanistan is not forgotten. Despite its importance throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Afghanistan rarely makes the front pages of Western media anymore. Consequently, the lives of Afghans, especially women, grow ever more difficult. We aim to describe some aspects of everyday life in Afghanistan, which remain largely unmentioned in the Western press.
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