Afghanistan: the More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same

Zoë Sharp

 ‘The Taliban Islamic militia have come and conquered with stunning speed.’

 

You might think these words were used to describe the situation in Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban took control of the country. In fact, they were written by British journalist David Loyn in September 1996, to describe events as the Taliban last came to power after the departure of Russian forces in 1988/89.

 

The more things change, it seems, the more they stay the same.

 

The past few weeks have seen the withdrawal of coalition troops from Afghanistan after a conflict lasting twenty years. I doubt history will look kindly on the manner in which this evacuation took place. Although I agree with the words of German field marshal and military strategist, Helmuth von Moltke: “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the gist.

 

Even so, I think Field Marshal von Moltke would be shaking his head in horrified wonder at the chaotic scenes we’ve watched on the nightly news, as crowds of desperate Afghans and foreign nationals tried to get aboard the last flights out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, even as the Taliban were re-taking the city. The sight of people clinging to the outside of a US transport plane as it rolled along the runway, and then falling as it took off, is not one I will soon forget.

 

On August 8, President Biden had announced, “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” This was despite the fact that, as far back as May 20, the UN had reported that the Taliban “now contest or control an estimated fifty to seventy percent of Afghan territory outside of urban centres, while also exerting direct control over fifty-seven percent of district administrative centres.”

 

By August 14, the Taliban controlled all border crossings, with the exception of the airport. The following day, they began their assault on the capital, which surrendered within hours.

 

I realise I’m an outsider in all this, but I still wonder why—when political and military commanders knew well in advance that they were ending operations in Afghanistan—they didn’t begin evacuation of Afghan nationals who had worked alongside the coalition forces via Bagram Airfield, while they still had control of it. It would appear from reports I’ve seen that the last US troops left the base—shutting off the electricity and disappearing into the night—July 1, without a formal handover to the Afghan Armed Forces. Most of the AAF only realised the US troops had gone when the lights went out and the looting started. Although the AAF quickly regained control of Bagram it, too, fell to Taliban forces on August 15.

 

On August 26, a suicide bomber detonated around 25 pounds of explosives and shrapnel outside the Abbey Gate of the airport, killing at least 170 people and wounding 150 others. The Islamic State group IS-K claimed responsibility. This further hampered the evacuation efforts.

 

Although reports claim that 122,300 people were airlifted out of Kabul, tens of thousands were left behind. We are told that some are now living in fear of reprisals for having aided the coalition. Women are frightened of consequences for simply gaining an education, a job, or going about without a chaperone.

 

So far, the new Taliban government appears to be playing nice. They promise we will not see a return to the human rights abuses of the 1990s, when public floggings, amputations, and executions by stoning were commonplace. They even promise that women may continue their education, and return to their government jobs—although not at any kind of high level, obviously…

 

Only time will tell.

 

For me, it was heart-breaking to watch events as they have unfolded in Afghanistan. I took a particular interest as I’ve highlighted the situation there in two of my books. The first of these was Dancing On The Grave, the first of my Lakes crime thrillers. This story features an ex-military sniper who is suffering from PTSD after serving in Afghanistan. The treatment of a teenage Afghan boy who operated as his spotter plays a huge role in the plot.

 

The latest book to feature Afghanistan is a prequel to my Charlie Fox series, Trial Under Fire, which came out in August. The action of this book follows Charlie years before the series proper starts, back when she is still in the British Army and is on what should have been a routine patrol with her unit in Helmand province. At that time, female personnel were not supposed to be put in combat situations. But a helicopter crash and the arrival of a Black Ops team soon throws that out the window. They need Charlie’s ‘very particular set of skills’. How can she say no?

 

This week’s Word of the Week is dustsceawung, which is an Old English word for which there is no direct translation. It means to contemplate the fact that dust used to be other things—we came from dust, and will return to being dust when we are gone. It is supposed to shift one’s focus from the material things in life to subjects with deeper meaning.

 

As well as Trial Under Fire, my latest book out is the Charlie Fox short story collection, Fox Five Reloaded. Available for pre-order is the first in a new series, The Last Time She Died, which will be out in October 2021.

Bullying in Religion’s name

Today I am very pleased to introduce you to the delightful Susan Froetschel, who will take MIE readers to a brand new location--Afghanistan.  I met Susan because we shared a panel together at Malice Domestic.  She is the author of five mystery books. Her Fear of Beauty – about a fictional Afghan village bullied by a band of extremists and the woman who resists – was a nominee for the 2014 Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award, Mystery Writers of America. Her next book, Allure of Deceit, will be published by Seventh Street Books in February. Based in Michigan, she writes for YaleGlobal Online, based at Yale University’s MacMillan Center. A review in Calliope noted: “For readers numbed by a decade of news reports from war-torn Afghanistan, Froetschel provides a fascinating glimpse into life in a humble village… The magic of reading this book is that we become Sofi, and we leave better for the experience.”  Here is her take on a plight of women in a place that has been wartorn for decades.

In countries like Afghanistan or Nigeria, it takes only a few to terrorize entire communities with brutal attacks on schools, police, or courts. The victims, so often women or children, cannot follow the old advice to ignore bullies and walk away.   

Research on religious bullying tends to focus on varying beliefs among religions or sects. One definition describes religious bullying as “repeated acts of aggression in which the power of institutional religion is used to mock, humiliate, or threaten others who do not share the same religious beliefs or practices.”

Nations dominated by one religion are not immune from such bullying. Competition for power turns into a self-righteous effort to be “holier than the rest” and insistence that no alternative points of view exist. Adult bullies may take on the role of teacher, “disguising demeaning and cruel behavior as appropriate disciplinary responses,” suggests David R. Dupper in School Bullying: New Perspectives on a Growing Problem.

Women in Afghanistan must worry about the Taliban and other extremists having any role in government. “The Taliban has turned into Frankenstein’s monster; a few crumbs will not satiate it,” writes Kamila Hyat for the News International in Pakistan.  “Perhaps this is why those who are ‘pro-talks’ have not said what their formula for a compromise would be or how they plan to tame a monster which is growing stronger as we hum and haw over what to do with it.” She warns that communities that don’t speak out against bullying can expect to see their communities weakened.

Without zero tolerance, bullying spreads.    

In their quest for power, bullies target both the weak and successful. Bullying is repeated, intentional and can escalate, warns a National Centre Against Bullying in Australia brochure, printed in several languages. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry describes some warning signs: Bullies thrive on controlling others with physical or verbal responses. The bullies are insecure and often have a history of being bullied themselves. Many claim they are under attack even as they bully others, trying to achieve power.  

Unfortunately, experts such as those at BullyingStatistics.org admit that little can be done about adult bullies even in the West: The bullies “are not interested in working things out and they are not interested in compromise. Rather, adult bullies are more interested in power and domination. They want to feel as though they are important and preferred, and they accomplish this by bringing others down. There is very little you can do to change an adult bully, beyond working within the confines of laws…”

Rule of law is shaky in Afghanistan. About 80 percent of criminal and civil disputes in Afghanistan are resolved by small and informal community forums rather than official courts, the U.S. Institute of Peace has reported, and the track record of protecting the vulnerable can be hit or miss. In hostile communities, the vulnerable cannot count on enforcement or justice.

Research suggests that influencing the onlookers to speak up and resist may be more effective than containing the bullies. “There is increasing agreement among researchers and policymakers that interventions against bullying should be targeted at the peer group level rather than at individual bullies and victims,” notes Christina Salmivalli for Education.com. The professor of psychology at the University of Turku, Finland, writes about children but the principles apply to the marginalized adults, often insecure, who also try to control through bullying. When onlookers don’t speak up, the bullies view that as acceptance of their behavior. “Converting their already existing attitudes into behaviour is a challenging task, but it might nevertheless be a more realistic goal,” Salmivalli explains.

Those who oppose the bullying culture must resist, finding supportive bystanders and speaking out together. Parents must raise their children to detest the swaggering tendencies, in others and themselves. Fortunately, members of the Taliban may number no more than 75,000, relatively few in a country of more than 30 million people. Many join the Taliban movement for economic rather than ideological reasons or are coerced.  

Unless communities identify the controlling behavior and resist it together, spreading courage and support, bullying can become entrenched among some adults. A recent Duke University linked bullying with risk of psychological disorders in adulthood. A 2006 Canadian study of adolescents suggests that identification of the bullies and awareness can ease the reinforcing dynamics.

Social media has taken a lead in identifying and labeling religious bullying for what it is – cruel power grabs. A swell of global support for any one community helps all under attack by bullies.     

Young women train as midwifes in Nigeria, with support from Great Britain

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Students share books in Helmand.

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