In case you've managed to miss the news this last week and a bit, after 20 long years the United States has withdrawn from Afghanistan, bringing to a close this experiment in nation building and allowing new control of Afghanistan: the Taliban.
Obviously, for many, far from ideal.
As Kabul fell, I weirdly couldn't look away. I found myself watching as embassies closed and Westerners fled. As people rushed to airports and clung to planes, desperate to get out before the world as they knew it was flipped on its head.
Politically speaking, I'm still in the process of forming an opinion (about the merits of American withdrawal, that is - I think we can all agree that any progress in the country has been all but erased). But on a more personal level, my heart is absolutely shattered for women and girls all over the country, who find themselves suddenly thrust into an uncertain, likely incredibly oppressive future.
Only a few days before the American departure, I found myself doing some work for this internship of mine. Remember, this all focuses on female education. And, on the day in question I just so happened to be looking into a girls school in Kabul, reading a National Geographic article focusing on 17 and 18 year old girls who had just written exams and were off, suddenly adults, ready to start their lives "for real". One such student expressed an interest in engineering, wanting to stay in Afghanistan to continue to help build the nation.
Less than 72 hours later, that future would be far from a guarantee.
Obviously, we've yet to see what the new "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" will look like. The Taliban PR team claims that their governance won't look like that of the 90s, but amid reports of an increased demand for Burqas and lists of women and girls ages 15+ to marry off to Taliban fighters, it's hard to see how this new Afghanistan will be anything but oppressive.
No doubt, the media coverage will fade, and only a niche few organizations will continue to focus on the humanitarian issues that will surely pop up. But for now, the global spotlight remains squarely on Afghanistan, and it's up to us to keep it that way.
I, for one, will be watching.
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