Live news in Afghanistan: Anti-missile system intercepts missiles at Kabul airport | world News

[ad_1]

Reuters reports on the Afghan ‘Gen Z’ and his fears for the future:

When 20-year-old Sally found out last week that she had outperformed the nearly 200,000 students who took the college entrance exam in Afghanistan this year, she was elated.

For several months, she locked herself in her room in the capital, Kabul, to study, sometimes forgetting to eat. With her family crowded around the solar-powered television set as the results came in, she knew her hard work had paid off.

“It was a moment when I felt like someone gave me a talent for the whole world,” Sally told Reuters, like so many in the country. “My mother cried out of happiness and cried with her.”

That feeling almost immediately turned to anxiety when I remembered the events of the past weeks.

18-year-old Sally scored the highest marks in the entire country on college entrance exams in Afghanistan this year Photo: Nilab Burhan/Associated Press

After withdrawing the bulk of the remaining US forces in Afghanistan, the Taliban began a staggering advance across the country, culminating in the fall of Kabul on August 15.

“We are facing a very uncertain future and we are thinking about what will happen next,” Sally told Reuters. “I think I’m the most unlucky and unlucky person out there.”

Nearly two-thirds of Afghans are under the age of 25, and an entire generation cannot even remember the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until Western-backed militias ousted them in 2001.

During that time, they implemented a strict interpretation of Islamic law, banning girls from studying, women from working, and carrying out public executions. Since 2001, militants have fought an insurgency in which thousands of Afghans have been killed.

Since regaining power, the group has been quick to reassure students that their education will not be disrupted, also saying it will respect women’s rights and urging talented professionals not to leave the country.

But Afghanistan’s “Generation Z” – born roughly at the turn of the millennium – used to use cell phones, pop music and gender mingling – and now fears some liberties will be taken away, according to interviews with six Afghans. Students and young professionals.

“I made such big plans, and I had all these high-range goals for myself that spanned the next 10 years,” said Suzanne Nabi, a 21-year-old graduate student.

“We had hope for life, and hope for change. But in just one week, they took over the country and within 24 hours they took all our hopes, and our dreams were snatched from before our eyes. It was all for nothing.”

A Taliban spokesman did not immediately respond to questions regarding this article.

Hard-earned freedoms

On the morning of August 15 as two students approached Kabul, 26-year-old Javid rushed home from the university where he worked after graduation. He declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals.

He deleted all emails and social media messages he shared with foreign organizations and governments, especially the United States.

He took hard copies of certificates provided by US-funded development programs to his backyard and set them on fire. He broke a glass that he got for this work on the floor.

Many Afghans working for outside organizations have tried to flee the country in the past two weeks.

Afghan students wait to receive a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at Kabul University. Photo: Maryam Zaheeb/Associated Press

With few stories from parents about the Taliban, some young people said they were frightened, whatever the reality of the situation on the ground.

The first time many of them saw members of the group they were patrolling the streets after their occupation of Kabul.

Besides safety, young people Reuters spoke to said they were concerned that other hard-earned freedoms could be taken away.

High school enrollment increased from 12% in 2001 to 55% in 2018, according to the World Bank.

Since a single state-owned radio station broadcasts mainly calls for prayers and religious teachings, Afghanistan now has an estimated 170 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers, and dozens of television stations.

That’s not to mention smartphones and the internet – non-existent under the Taliban – giving young people access to events outside Afghanistan’s borders, said Ilha Tamim, an 18-year-old who just passed her college entrance exam.

“It’s something we all use at all times,” she said. “We use it for entertainment when we want to relax, it’s our way of discovering what’s going on in the rest of the world. I don’t want to lose that.”

Women’s rights

Some young women are particularly worried about the Taliban’s victory.

The number of girls in primary school has risen from virtually zero under the Taliban to more than 80%, according to the World Bank.

Grade 10 at Zargona Girls’ High School in Kabul Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

The Taliban said they would respect the girls’ rights to go to school this time, though Javid said many female students at his university stopped coming to class out of fear.

“I grew up in an environment where we were free, we could go to school, we could go in and out,” Tamim said. My mother tells stories about her bitter times (under the Taliban). These stories are scary.”

Ammar Yasir, a member of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, personally congratulated Salji – the student who topped the university entrance exams – on Twitter for her results, and for being accepted into the medical school.

She is now hoping to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor, despite the uncertainty.

“If the Taliban allow girls to get higher education and don’t put barriers in front of them, that’s a good thing, otherwise the struggle of my whole life is in danger,” she said.

Despite the assurances, some of the people Reuters spoke to said they were desperate to leave, but did not know how.

“If I thought that staying here would bring any hope of positive change, then I would be willing, like thousands of other young people, to give up my life for it,” Naby said.

“But we all know that’s not a fact.”

.

[ad_2]