Afghanistan: "It is above all the Taliban order which will fall on Kabul"
Audio 06:36
Taliban forces patrol the town of Herat on August 14, 2021. REUTERS - STRINGER
By: Florence Thomazeau
11 mins
Firouzeh Nahavandi, professor at the Free University of Brussels, specialist in South-West Asia, author of
Afghanistan (
Editions de Boeck) analyzes the situation in Afghanistan.
Publicity
Today, after 20, are we back to square one?
In a way, we can say to ourselves that indeed, we are at square one, that is to say that we are in a situation quite close to what happened twenty years ago. , and already in 1996, when the Taliban returned to Kabul and controlled the whole country.
Yes, indeed, it is as if nothing more had happened.
Are the Taliban ruling the whole country today or are there still small pockets of resistance?
Pockets of resistance are found all over the country.
There are also demonstrations taking place in the country against the advance of the Taliban, but in fact the Taliban control almost the whole country.
When Kabul falls, and there is no doubt that Kabul will fall, they will control the whole country.
Let's talk about Kabul where many Afghans have taken refuge, Kabul which is falling today.
What is the situation of this capital which had to resist?
The situation is quite catastrophic in Kabul since the population is generally terrorized by the arrival of the Taliban.
We are in an in-between situation since there are still American forces protecting their nationals, their embassy.
There are still the foreign forces which are in the process of repatriating their nationals.
Nevertheless, the Afghans themselves are utterly devoid of any force that can protect them.
This is the drama of Kabul, is that the Afghans are going to be left to fend for themselves once the Americans have left, if they really leave completely. Once the foreign forces no longer protect the capital and its nationals, Afghans may wonder what will happen to them and this is the reason why so many Afghans are trying to leave the country, that is to say to the regions. neighbors, a little further, but in any case, it's a bit of panic for this capital which compared to other regions was a more modern capital.
What the Afghans fear is what has happened in all the regions that the Taliban have controlled and have started to control for a few years, since, and here, we come back to what happened before, the Taliban have redone what they had done when they were in power from 1996, that is to say moralize, control the population and establish their moral order.
Concretely, what will change for Afghan society, for these inhabitants of Kabul in particular?
For the people of Kabul, what will change is the moral scourge that will once again befall the country and Kabul is particularly sensitive to this because it is a relatively modern part of the country. In the countryside, the rural areas, things had not changed much, but for Kabul, it is a disaster announced for the situation of women, for everything that concerns the modern pockets of the city. Even if one can imagine that with the presence of the media and modern structures, it will not be quite the same thing. It is above all the Taliban order which will fall on Kabul. there is no doubt. We can already see that there are still women who are attacked, we see that there are stalls that are attacked,modern stores that are under attack and the Taliban are not yet fully in Kabul.
Fears for women are very marked today. Do you already have examples of abuses against women?
The examples of mistreated women, there are examples of women who flee, women who can no longer stay in their work, the examples are multiplying day by day.
In any case, we have the example if it is not yet completely done in Kabul, we have the example of what happened in other regions that the Taliban control.
From a strategic and moral point of view, they have not changed.
It's still the same traditional and backward way of seeing women who are seen as less than nothing.
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Afghanistan