International troops had not yet fully withdrawn from Kabul when the Taliban took over, pouring into the presidential palace on the afternoon of 15 August 2021 in the wake of Afghan President Ghani's hasty exit from the country. In mortal fear of the Taliban taking revenge, hundreds of thousands gathered on the tarmac at Kabul airport, risking their lives trying to get on a plane. Some ended up clinging desperately to the wings of planes taking off. The German army took off the next day, evacuating exactly 7 people sitting in empty, oversized cargo holds. The remainder were handed over to the Taliban, so to speak.
"15 August is a black day in the history of Afghanistan. 15 August was not the end of a state - it was the end of hope." (Shaherzad Kawiani*)
"Today the Taliban have adorned all the streets in Kabul with their flags and are revelling in their victory over the people, but I can do nothing but suffer." (Rahyab Joya*)
"Let's call it a handover to the Taliban, because it was all so simple and easy for the Taliban that we mustn't call it a takeover" (Abdul Ghafoor)
"I am still surprised at how quickly it was possible to dash the hopes of the people of Afghanistan, how easy it was. Personally, I don't know where this will lead me. At first I thought it would take me a year or two to get over it all. In terms of my personal situation, I am now safe and sound in Germany, but on the other hand, I have now realised that it will take me decades to come to terms with it personally." (Abdul Ghafoor)
"When they took Kabul, many hoped that the international community would intercede. We didn't have that hope. What should we expect from those who made it possible for the Taliban to take power?" (AVWSM)
Since then, the Taliban have been able to consolidate their theocratic rule of terror, expanding their regime of repression and control. While the majority of the population is starving in a spiralling humanitarian and economic crisis, members of the opposition are being hunted down, women are oppressed on a massive scale, while gender and ethnic-religious minorities are subjected to threats and often executed. The violence of the Taliban defies description, the desperation of the people is immeasurable.
"The situation of minorities, especially the Hazara, is very bad because they are afraid of being attacked by ISIS. Just a few days ago a deadly attack took place in West Kabul." (Abdul Ghafoor)
"Many deeply aggrieved and depressed girls and women commit suicide because they see no future for themselves in Afghanistan." (Abdul Ghafoor)
"The economic situation of people living in the earthquake zone is very bad, especially the widows whose husbands were killed by the Taliban during the war. They are no longer allowed to work under the Taliban." (Ghulam Nabi Amini)
"The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and its affiliated organisations have played a role in providing humanitarian assistance, including monitoring human rights violations by the Taliban. This humanitarian assistance has also inadvertently contributed to the Taliban's ability to maintain power, however. The presence of these international organisations has bolstered the Taliban's self-confidence and encouraged them to act with even greater fervour." (AHRDO)
"Since August 2021, US aid to Afghanistan has helped prevent the complete collapse of the Afghan economy, but it has not halted the dramatic rise in poverty. Instead, this aid has inadvertently become critical to the Taliban's survival, making their continued dominance and widespread violence possible." (AHRDO)
"But as their rule became more entrenched, they throttled resistance, resorting to extreme brutality, imprisoning, torturing, raping and killing dozens of protesting women. This violence, torture and oppression was directed against all political opposition and anyone who voiced even the slightest protest." (AVWSM)
Upon the ruins of the 20-year wartime regime, the Taliban has emerged stronger than ever before. An important role enabling their seizure of power was played by negotiations with those international powers that had accepted the agents of their destruction - along with the destruction of democracy, human rights and gender equality - after having turned a blind eye to their failure for years in a torpor of imperial arrogance. The geopolitical goal was to contain the peril and chaos sponsored by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban on the fringes of the capitalist world order. The means to this end were military intervention, regime change and state-building under Western hegemony and ongoing occupation. The objective was to bring freedom and provide support - but today the people of Afghanistan are left with nothing but oppression and a most bitter taste of betrayal.
"Over the past three years, Afghanistan has increasingly become a territorial flashpoint reminiscent of the situation at the end of the 1990s." (AHRDO)
" NATO troops posed as the "saviours of Afghan women", but instead they staged an invasion. It was a shock to the local population; violence was perpetrated on them." (Zahra Mousawi)
"Despite an extensive documentation of human rights violations by various national and international actors, international justice and accountability mechanisms have failed to prevent the Taliban from committing international crimes or holding its members accountable." (AHRDO)
The German Federal Reception Programme, a promise to all those who are still acutely at risk because of their commitment to democracy and human rights or because of their gender or sexual orientation, was put on hold for months. Instead of offering a safe haven, it has systematically created obstacles, exacerbated risks and riveted up insecurity for stakeholders. To date, only 581 people have been rescued. So 581 instead of 23,000 possible receptions. In current negotiations over the federal budget, a budget has yet to be earmarked to continue the programme. In the meantime, an increasingly anti-Muslim discourse has made deportations even to Afghanistan a possibility, and has led to corresponding repatriation agreements with the Taliban government.
"We are not tired of our homeland; we don't love Europe. But the Taliban have forced women to flee abroad. All migrants are leaving their homes because their hearts are broken and out of hopelessness. Women are not safe anywhere in the world; discrimination is present everywhere at different levels. But the Taliban have robbed us of all our rights." (Azada Ozan*)
"The waiting and the uncertainty have made me age a hundred years." (Aruzohaye Khakestar Shoda*).
"The news of the potential end of the German federal admission programme has hit me like cold water poured over the body in winter. It's hard to breathe. If this really happens, I will lose all hope and my life will be cast into darkness forever" (Omid Faramosh*)
"Since there was a terrorist attack in Germany and with the rise of right-wing and anti-immigration forces at the head of Western governments, we have been worrying and have anticipated this situation. Governments ignore the people and continue to oppress them. Unfortunately, progressive forces in Afghan society have either been imprisoned or killed, their voices stifled or bought off by the Taliban when faced with the alternatives of poverty or coercion. That is our fate!" (Rahyab Joya*)
The failure of the Western intervention phantasm at Kabul airport in August 2021 has its echo in the elimination of the right to asylum and an anti-migration policy. It is nothing less than a betrayal of Afghan civil society, which was promised support and protection.
Even in this steadily worsening situation, medico has not left the side of its partners, who continue to work tirelessly for human rights and against the Taliban regime - both in Afghanistan and in exile. While some carry on with their efforts to document and investigate human rights and war crimes in Afghanistan from exile, others are struggling for self-determination and dignity in opposition to the patriarchal rule of the Taliban. Still others are providing humanitarian aid on the ground to marginalised groups threatened by flooding as a result of the climate crisis.
Persons marked with * have a different name for security reasons.
Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO)
Activists at AHRDO worked for many years employing the methods of the "theatre of liberation", inviting people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds throughout the country to "work through" the experiences of violence in their lives through acting on stage. The conscious realisation that they had become both victims and perpetrators in a post-colonial war-torn history brought people together who wanted to make a new start in a democracy. After the Taliban returned to power, they fled to Canada via Pakistan . From there, AHRDO documents on an ongoing basis the violence in which people in Afghanistan have to live. But it also documents the history of violence in which they have had to live for decades - basically ever since attempts began to colonise the country. The place and medium for this work of remembrance and transmission is the "Afghanistan Memory Home", a virtual museum.
Reza Kar Herat
The "Reza Kar" team of volunteers is made up of eight people (four women and four men). Most of them are unemployed or former students who are now denied access to attending university. Immediately after the earthquake that hit the western Afghan province of Herat in October 2023, they joined forces to quickly provide humanitarian aid on the ground and have supported almost 500 families to date. The team enjoys great respect and trust among stakeholders, which is why the Taliban are currently refraining from harassing them or disrupting their work. They are supported by Amini, a human rights activist and former volunteer from our partner organisation for many years, AHRDO. Amini fortunately now lives in Berlin thanks to a special procedure for the reception of local staff working for German development cooperation (Ortskräfteverfahren). He links up aid with the networks of the diaspora, collects donations and supports coordination efforts.
AVWSM (Afghanistan Valorous Women’s Spontaneous Movement)
The Afghanistan Valorous Women's Spontaneous Movement is a feminist network that has organised countless protests since the Taliban took over. They organise safe spaces for 36 women to learn tailoring and provide them with fabrics and working materials. In addition to an opportunity to become self-sufficient, they create spaces for education and joint discussions between women about the social situation as well as fundamental and human rights. Together, they learn about digital safety as well as feminism, and improve their English. Together with others, they are campaigning against a normalisation politics with the Taliban government in the international community.
AWSA (Afghanistan Women’s Studies Academy)
AWSA is an independent research organisation in Germany that focuses on the development of strategies and the generation of knowledge in the field of gender studies in Afghanistan. The initiative is made up of Afghan human rights activists who are in direct contact with movements staging protests in Afghanistan, especially those advocating women's rights. They themselves had to leave the country after the Taliban came to power because they were at risk due to their work, which is primarily journalistic in nature. AWSA supports the struggles of women and girls to obtain access to knowledge and theory in Afghanistan. At the same time, the initiative is working to recover lost knowledge about the local women's movement that began even before the civil war broke out in the 1970s.
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