The 15th of August 2021

By Mohammad Zaki Zaki

I was heading home around 8 in the morning from the Super Star Educational Center where I teach when I noticed the Hilux truck parked across the street. This is the Toyota vehicle widely used by the Taliban, so it got my attention. The Center is on Baba Mazari’s main street in Dasht-e-Barchi in Kabul City. As I walked, things looked a bit strange. People were hurrying and wandering but without any clear purpose. Children were shouting. Women nervously adjusted their clothing, pretending to look as if they were wearing hijabs. The elders of the area gathered in groups, whispering about the changes that would impact everyone’s lives.

Four years ago in 2021, we had trouble understanding how easily the Afghan government collapsed. How fast the days of the Republic fell apart and ended. As I walked through the Center’s gate, a broken government car drove by very close to Best Metra Street and two people in the car were upset about their friends who had been killed by unknown assailants in Etifaq Township. I got close to visit them and asked them to express their worries. They hurriedly told me that Taliban had just reached nearby Etifq Township, which is not far from Qala-e-Naw. Indeed, they were at the entrance gate of Kabul waiting for the people to welcome them.

So I hurried from Qala-e-Naw to a local bus station to get more information and to observe the current situation. The avenues and alleys were crowded. Nobody was smiling, nobody was looking hopeful. Yes, hope had fled. Supermarkets were empty. Shops were without customers. Soon a police car full of strange soldiers now wearing their Afghan clothes was driving around. What was happening to our country?

This is how it started, that fateful day when the Taliban came to occupy the beloved country of Afghanistan. The moment our misery started. When our dreams disappeared and our plans were destroyed. This was when our liberty flew away. When deep poverty began to spread through the
country. This is when Afghan women became imprisoned in their own homes. When government officials escaped from the country, leaving their citizens in a terrible situation. This was when we saw the president’s helicopter flying off to abandon us.

I remember these moments every August 15th. I think about how the birds of peace were flying above Kabul, and how even though ethnic minorities like the Hazara were not able to reach full human rights, at least we could walk and talk freely around our city. Those hopeful times seem
far off. But I dream of a time in the future when justice and rights will come to Afghanistan. I hope that one day all Afghan residents can live calmly without any fear. I hope that one day husbands and wives, men and women, brothers and sisters, elders and youths will find comfortable moments to walk in the park, reminisce and be free, without fear. Without being governed by terrorists.