Afghanistan: What I saw, what I fear 

Located at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, the landlocked mountainous Afghanistan is a country of abundant natural beauty and diverse cultures. Ironically, for most people around the world, hearing the name Afghanistan brings to mind images of war, terrosim, political turmoil and a near-failed state whose human development index is one of the lowest in the world. 

Now with the re-emergence of the Taliban at the  helm of power, the country faces the possibility of plunging into a deeper crisis. I had the chance to live in this country for nearly three years and from my experience I can say that a "sense of insecurity" runs very deep among the Afghan people because of some obvious reasons.   

I went to Afghanistan as an aid worker in August, 2010 and lived there up until 2013 before I came back to Bangladesh. During my stay there, I was mostly based in the northwestern province of Badghis which has a mixed population of Tajiks, Pashtuns, Ujbeks and Turkmens. It shares an international border with Turkmenistan and has a total of seven districts.

I had visited all of those seven districts several times for my work. I also visited some other provinces, as well as the capital Kabul on a number of occasions.

The mostly mountainous region of Badghis was a beauty to behold. I especially liked the winter when it snowed. The whole landscape turned into a fairy land of white, dotted with black granite hills and brown dead branches of trees. My life there however was sort of a routined life as I needed to be at home from work by 5pm. 

That is because of security reasons. As aid workers, we were told that we should never leave home after 5:00pm. We were even told not to leave our headquarters unless there is an emergency.   

I was living there with three other Bangladeshi aid workers. Interestingly, four police personnel were posted in front of our office as well as in front of our homes. They were a part of the  government police force but we had to pay for their salary. We had to provide for their residence and meals.  That was the arrangement.

Our office was just a walking distance from our home but we were instructed to travel inside a vehicle. Most of the time we were deprived of the simple joy of walking on a road because of security reasons.  
 
I was overseeing several healthcare related projects and supervising health facilities in the province for an international NGO. 

We, the Bangladeshi aid workers, used to supervise the projects. However, the other staff were all Afghan-- the nurses, the doctors as well as the midwives. 

As we were tasked with overseeing the work in the healthcare facilities across the province, we used to travel a lot during the daytime. It gave me the chance to observe Afghan society and their lifestyle from a close distance. Afghan society, especially in the northwestern part of the country, was a very conservative one. 

This was because anti-government groups like Taliban were very active in several of the districts, controlled part of the province and often carried out insurgency activities. The security situation was especially bad in the northern districts of Ghormach and Murghab, both of which were populated by Pashtuns who were sympathetic towards the local Taliban.

All of the women of the province were required to wear burqas with niqab in public places. None of their body parts could be seen. During the time I stayed there, girls were allowed to go to school but I had heard from the local people that in the past, the Taliban didn't let girls attend schools.    

The situation in the capital Kabul was however a lot different. I even saw girls wearing jeans and taking part in different sports activities in the capital. Now with the Taliban takeover of the capital and state power, I am feeling anxious about whether they would put restrictions on girl's education and sport's activities again. 

During my stay, I saw how local women took up different jobs and worked as aid workers, nurses, midwives and teachers, even in a relatively backward province like Badghis.  Now, I fear whether they will be stripped of the chance of working in fields like those. 

I had a feeling that most of the ordinary people did not have any soft corner for the Taliban. They basically feared the Taliban. The main reason people did not support their style of ruling was because of their repressive attitude towards women. Women are deprived of their basic rights, including education and freedom of speech, under Taliban rule. They cannot lead their life in their own way. 

I believe the  Afghan people are already years behind Bangladesh. Now with the Taliban takeover, the situation will go back to where it was 20 years back. Even during the rule of Hamid Karzai, mine blasts and remote control bomb blasts were regular incidents. But people had their freedom. 

Sazzad Hossain is an aid worker with an international NGO