Story: In villages that once bore the brunt of Afghanistan’s frontline fighting, Taliban The victory has broken the cycle of air strikes, gun battles and funerals.
The radical takeover of Kabul and the sudden collapse of the US-backed regime in August shocked the world and affected the independence of Afghans, which was particularly enjoyed by the urban middle class.
But far from the big cities, where little international aid worth billions of dollars ever reached, many believe the regime of the Islamic movement could stop the fighting and hope for an end to corruption.
“I will give everything for the Taliban,” said the 72-year-old makio When he, along with a group of other women, made cotton fibers in his stiff hands gloves, a remote agricultural settlement in northern Balkh province.
“There is no sound of shooting now,” she told AFP. “The war is over and we are happy with the Taliban.”
Extremely poor villagers are preparing for winter by drying animal dung to be used as fuel.
A bitter wind gathers dust in the central cemetery, where the graves of Taliban fighters are now decorated with colorful trinkets and flags.
The son of an 82-year-old village elder lives in a nice plot. Hajifat Khanwho celebrated the victory of Islamists.
“The men and women of this village are pro-Taliban, young and old,” he said, walking cross-legged at a neighbor’s house.
“Now I am satisfied. There are no infidels now,” he told AFP, adding that he was beaten up by a local pro-government militia just before the takeover.
He said Dastan – about 30 kilometers (20 mi) north of the city of Balkh – used to be a thriving community with more than 60 families.
With many fleeing fighting and poverty, now only a handful of families are left amidst dilapidated foundations, collapsed vaulted roofs and empty houses.
A US-led invasion in 2001 toppled the brutal, oppressive Taliban regime, which was followed by two decades of military intervention by NATO forces.
A democratic government was restored, women were once again allowed to work and study, and an assertive civil society was rebuilt.
But allegations of corruption and vote-rigging plagued government institutions, justice was slow and ineffective, and foreign soldiers were accused of colluding with warlords, abusing Afghans, and disrespecting local customs.
Thousands of civilians are killed or injured each year in attacks by Taliban insurgents and airstrikes by US-led forces, with progress largely limited to cities, as the worst war in the countryside.
Mohamed Nasiro A cotton field on the outskirts of the historic city of Balkh, yards from the 9th-century Noh Gonbad mosque, earns 200 to 300 afghani (US$2 to three) a day, which is believed to be Afghanistan’s oldest Islamic building. Is.
He weighs the white crop with a scale hanging on a tree, before filling it into orange bags ready for collection.
Nasser said that he did not support either side in the struggle that lasted for most of his life.
“I was against both of them because I wanted peace,” the 24-year-old from the nearby Zavalkai village told AFP. “I didn’t want to fight.”
In another nearby plantation, 26-year-old Farima is one of dozens of women and children harvesting cotton in the sun, draped warmly against the wind.
During the war, she avoided leaving her home for fear of being injured.
With the cotton harvesting season coming to an end, she is now working the land daily with her daughters Asma, 10, and Husna, 9, and son. barkatula, at just three years old.
Farm pickers in Daulatabad district are paid about 10 afghanis (11 cents of a US dollar) per kilogram, each making 200 to 300 afghanis.
Wearing pink rubber gloves to protect her hands from the sharp tufts of cotton plants, Farima told AFP it was hard work.
“But what else can I do?” he said.
For him, life has remained unsettled and exhausting since the Taliban takeover.
Whereas the end of the conflict is a relief, hardship and insecurity.
“What has changed? We are still hungry and have no jobs,” she says.
An imminent economic disaster means the window for the Taliban to retain loyalty could be narrowed.
With the national currency, afghani, depreciating and the country’s reserves frozen abroad, the price of essential commodities such as cooking oil, rice and tomato paste has now become very high.
Afghanistan is now facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than half of Afghans facing “acute food insecurity” this winter, as a severe drought ravages the country.
In neighboring Samangan province, where 93 percent of the 440,000-strong population live in rural areas, Noor Mohamed Sedkat grows onions, carrots, okra, tomatoes and pumpkins.
In the months before the takeover, he was caught in the crossfire of heavy fighting between government forces in the west and the Taliban in the east.
He said that on one occasion a group of farmers was mistaken for Taliban by a local militia and narrowly escaped being killed.
Sedkat’s position in the front line meant that he did not dare to show allegiance to the Taliban or the government.
“If we go to one side, the other side will beat us, and vice versa,” he said.
The 28-year-old father of nine children who worked on a plot of land in Yakatut village, about 20 kilometers from the provincial capital Aybak, says the new government has cut crime and corruption.
But his earnings are falling.
He rides Aybak every one to two weeks to sell his produce in the market, and expects to make 6,000 to 7,000 Afghanis per trip.
But the morning he spoke to AFP, he made just 3,000 Afghans for 10 to 12 days of work.
“If it continues like this, we cannot be happy with the Taliban,” he told AFP, while his children were eating sunflower seeds.
“What can we do? How can we survive?”
Sixteen members of Sedkat’s family sleep in a one-room hut made of six meters by three meters (20 feet by 10 feet) of stone and mud.
He hopes that the Taliban will gain international recognition and trade with Afghanistan’s neighbors will increase.
“We will be satisfied if they take care of poor people, but not if they trample us,” he said.
The radical takeover of Kabul and the sudden collapse of the US-backed regime in August shocked the world and affected the independence of Afghans, which was particularly enjoyed by the urban middle class.
But far from the big cities, where little international aid worth billions of dollars ever reached, many believe the regime of the Islamic movement could stop the fighting and hope for an end to corruption.
“I will give everything for the Taliban,” said the 72-year-old makio When he, along with a group of other women, made cotton fibers in his stiff hands gloves, a remote agricultural settlement in northern Balkh province.
“There is no sound of shooting now,” she told AFP. “The war is over and we are happy with the Taliban.”
Extremely poor villagers are preparing for winter by drying animal dung to be used as fuel.
A bitter wind gathers dust in the central cemetery, where the graves of Taliban fighters are now decorated with colorful trinkets and flags.
The son of an 82-year-old village elder lives in a nice plot. Hajifat Khanwho celebrated the victory of Islamists.
“The men and women of this village are pro-Taliban, young and old,” he said, walking cross-legged at a neighbor’s house.
“Now I am satisfied. There are no infidels now,” he told AFP, adding that he was beaten up by a local pro-government militia just before the takeover.
He said Dastan – about 30 kilometers (20 mi) north of the city of Balkh – used to be a thriving community with more than 60 families.
With many fleeing fighting and poverty, now only a handful of families are left amidst dilapidated foundations, collapsed vaulted roofs and empty houses.
A US-led invasion in 2001 toppled the brutal, oppressive Taliban regime, which was followed by two decades of military intervention by NATO forces.
A democratic government was restored, women were once again allowed to work and study, and an assertive civil society was rebuilt.
But allegations of corruption and vote-rigging plagued government institutions, justice was slow and ineffective, and foreign soldiers were accused of colluding with warlords, abusing Afghans, and disrespecting local customs.
Thousands of civilians are killed or injured each year in attacks by Taliban insurgents and airstrikes by US-led forces, with progress largely limited to cities, as the worst war in the countryside.
Mohamed Nasiro A cotton field on the outskirts of the historic city of Balkh, yards from the 9th-century Noh Gonbad mosque, earns 200 to 300 afghani (US$2 to three) a day, which is believed to be Afghanistan’s oldest Islamic building. Is.
He weighs the white crop with a scale hanging on a tree, before filling it into orange bags ready for collection.
Nasser said that he did not support either side in the struggle that lasted for most of his life.
“I was against both of them because I wanted peace,” the 24-year-old from the nearby Zavalkai village told AFP. “I didn’t want to fight.”
In another nearby plantation, 26-year-old Farima is one of dozens of women and children harvesting cotton in the sun, draped warmly against the wind.
During the war, she avoided leaving her home for fear of being injured.
With the cotton harvesting season coming to an end, she is now working the land daily with her daughters Asma, 10, and Husna, 9, and son. barkatula, at just three years old.
Farm pickers in Daulatabad district are paid about 10 afghanis (11 cents of a US dollar) per kilogram, each making 200 to 300 afghanis.
Wearing pink rubber gloves to protect her hands from the sharp tufts of cotton plants, Farima told AFP it was hard work.
“But what else can I do?” he said.
For him, life has remained unsettled and exhausting since the Taliban takeover.
Whereas the end of the conflict is a relief, hardship and insecurity.
“What has changed? We are still hungry and have no jobs,” she says.
An imminent economic disaster means the window for the Taliban to retain loyalty could be narrowed.
With the national currency, afghani, depreciating and the country’s reserves frozen abroad, the price of essential commodities such as cooking oil, rice and tomato paste has now become very high.
Afghanistan is now facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than half of Afghans facing “acute food insecurity” this winter, as a severe drought ravages the country.
In neighboring Samangan province, where 93 percent of the 440,000-strong population live in rural areas, Noor Mohamed Sedkat grows onions, carrots, okra, tomatoes and pumpkins.
In the months before the takeover, he was caught in the crossfire of heavy fighting between government forces in the west and the Taliban in the east.
He said that on one occasion a group of farmers was mistaken for Taliban by a local militia and narrowly escaped being killed.
Sedkat’s position in the front line meant that he did not dare to show allegiance to the Taliban or the government.
“If we go to one side, the other side will beat us, and vice versa,” he said.
The 28-year-old father of nine children who worked on a plot of land in Yakatut village, about 20 kilometers from the provincial capital Aybak, says the new government has cut crime and corruption.
But his earnings are falling.
He rides Aybak every one to two weeks to sell his produce in the market, and expects to make 6,000 to 7,000 Afghanis per trip.
But the morning he spoke to AFP, he made just 3,000 Afghans for 10 to 12 days of work.
“If it continues like this, we cannot be happy with the Taliban,” he told AFP, while his children were eating sunflower seeds.
“What can we do? How can we survive?”
Sixteen members of Sedkat’s family sleep in a one-room hut made of six meters by three meters (20 feet by 10 feet) of stone and mud.
He hopes that the Taliban will gain international recognition and trade with Afghanistan’s neighbors will increase.
“We will be satisfied if they take care of poor people, but not if they trample us,” he said.
.