Don’t put your hand in every hole, or a snake might bite you
-Afghan Proverb
Early last week, I found myself becoming easily irritated, frustrated, even angry – and not quite able to figure out what was going on.
And then it hit me.
Weeks and weeks of being invisible almost every time I walked into an interview or waited outside a Ministry checkpoint takes a strange toll. I had, regrettably in many ways, somewhat accepted my place as a woman not to be seen under the deeply conservative Taliban rule.
But those accumulated moments indeed festered into my subconscious, and I can only begin to scratch the surface of what Afghan women still here must be feeling. Such absence from the world is the future that lies ahead of them.
It’s embedded in culture and society, yes. Yet, I cannot help but wonder if we, as female foreign journalists, could and should play a more decisive part in not normalizing the secondary status of women in the eyes of the Taliban.
Rather than allowing it to get the better of me, I have changed tactics. I look every single Talib I meet dead in the eye. I continue to stare even when it becomes uncomfortable for them. In addition, I am sure to walk beside my photographer Jake and wonderful fixer/producer Naweed whenever they exchange greetings, ensuring I am not left to languish to the side.
At the amusement park on the edges of Kabul on Friday, the Talibs gathered around with perplexed faces as I took to going on the dizzying rides.
I waved. Some scattered. Some stayed.
Over dinner at the place of recreation, I continued to stare and acknowledge any Talib who peeped in our direction.
You know what? Ninety percent of them break. Ninety percent of them forcibly acknowledge my perhaps, overbearing presence.
Small, moral victories matter. Women have come too far to throw the last two decades away. Train these Talibans (many Afghans use the plural, which makes sense to me – the Pashto word means students) to do differently.
And the social experiment of mine will continue. Mark my words.
WHY THE TALIBAN WON’T CONCEDE TO INTERNATIONAL DEMANDS FOR RECOGNITION
It has been almost two months since the Taliban took complete control of the beleaguered Afghanistan, and the country has failed to secure much international recognition nor successfully lobby for the unfreezing of more than $9 billion in assets.
And although the war-ravaged nation is continuing to plunge deeper into economic hardship with each passing day, the top brass remains firm it will not cower to external demands – such as immediate access to girls’ education which has been halted for three weeks now, or an inclusive government which is instead filled with mostly hardline Pashtuns sans women or ethnic diversity – for a straightforward reason.
“The U.S. and other countries want us to agree to several terms,” warns one high-ranking Taliban intelligence official, who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to media. “But it will backfire on us; all the lower-level soldiers could then defect to the ISIS and work against us. They did all the years of Jihad to avoid this.”
Some of the most important of those terms include:
Full and equal women’s rights
Human Rights, as per international/United Nations standards
Restriction on the draconian application of Shariah (Islamic) Law, which under the Taliban’s last reign consisted of floggings, amputations, stonings and town square hangings
A comprehensive government, replete with representation from all political parties
Avoid acts of terrorism or turning blind eyes to terror plots on its soil
It is something of a self-inflicted wound. Almost all the young foot soldiers received little formal education before attending madrassas preaching hardline interpretations of Islam. Moreover, the former insurgency has long espoused that its number one goal is to remove any foreign influence, thus conceding to western demands on how to operate would likely be viewed by the deeply indoctrinated as running counter to its dominant narrative.
ISIS-K, formally termed ISIS-Khorasan to reflect the broader South Asian scope, consists of anywhere between several hundred to several thousand operatives. The group has claimed responsibility for a string of brutal attacks in recent months. It is believed to act from its stronghold in the southeast Nananghar province near the Pakistani border.
“ISIS in Afghanistan are not coming from Iraq or Syria or other places,” the source continues. “They splintered from the Taliban, wanting a (harsher) and more broad approach to Jihad. They don’t want any reconciliation with the West.”
In addition to the threat of disillusioned fighters opting to join the medieval terrorist clan for ideological reasons, the Taliban also faces the predicament that it does not pay its members salaries. By contrast, ISIS functions as a more oiled machine with salaries and foreign financing.
CLICK TO READ MORE ABOUT THE TALIBAN’S FAILURE TO CONCEDE
THE TALIBAN’S RETURN: PREPARATIONS FOR ‘MARTYRDOM’ GO ON
For almost two decades, the Taliban waged a vicious war against U.S occupation and the Afghan government – replete with frequent suicide attacks claiming countless lives and limbs. But now that they have come to official power, the former insurgency still has no plans to scale back the training for “martyrdom.”
The difference now is that their once covert suicide schools operate freely on bases primarily bought and paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.
“They will not blow themselves up on us,” says Akif Mohajer, the 32-year-old longtime Taliban member and newly appointed Director for Information and Culture in Logar province. “They are part of the Special Forces. If anyone or any country tries to move against our interests, they will be used.”
According to Mohajer, who joined the Taliban himself as a teen in 2004, explains that the process is a combination of psychological and military skills akin to any advanced army in the world.
“We provide them with all the equipment and facilities used in developed countries,” he continues breezily. “Earlier, we did the training anywhere, but since our takeover, we have facilities that the former government used.”
CLICK TO READ MORE ABOUT THE TALIBAN’S ‘MARTYDOM’
DESPITE OVERTURES TO ERADICATE OPIUM, TALIBAN LEADERS MULL LEGALIZATION TO BOOST AILING ECONOMY
From a distance, the luminous visual of white — bespeckled with the occasional pink — bulbs rising from the arid fields could be mistaken for a pretty patchwork of color cast against the parched terrain. But as you venture deeper into the impoverished farming fields, the seemingly innocuous flowers take on a far more sinister tone.
It is not even poppy season in Afghanistan — a country which exports more than ninety percent of the world’s heroin — yet some crops still endure across the thirsty landscape even after twenty years, and some $9.4 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars were poured into eradicating the illicit plant.
“We have to have an Islamic ruling and a strategy plan in place. Once we have a plan in place, we will work on it,” says Haji Abdul Haq Akhond Hamkar, Deputy Director for Counter Narcotics under the Ministry of the Interior, declining to elaborate on whether the plan was total eradication of the vast poppy fields.
With the U.S departure and the Taliban takeover, the former insurgency can now freely nourish and cultivate the raw element of opium and its killer byproduct, heroin. Hamkar also points out that before they can undergo any form of poppy elimination, they have to help the largely poor, cash-strapped farmers “find jobs” so that they can potentially “stop on their own.”
And while the top leadership of the Taliban — formally referred to as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — claim that they will annihilate poppy farms in the southern parcel of the war-ravished country as they endeavor to institute a hardline interpretation of Islamic Law, some officials are seemingly not opposed to loopholes within their own ethical code.
Hamkar hinted that the door is still open to potential “legalization” of farming — providing Afghans are not the ones harmed.
“We either create alternative jobs or legalize it. Then the problem is solved,” Hamkar conjectures. “We are working on it; we are open to the idea.”
CLICK TO READ MORE ABOUT LEGALIZATION EFFORTS HERE
Lastly, shout out to Benjamin Weinthal for the lovely review in the Jerusalem Post on my last book “Only Cry for the Living: Lessons from Inside the ISIS Battlefield.”
McKay, a fearless war correspondent, has crisscrossed conflict areas for Fox News, where I started to read her stories. I have been a dedicated reader of McKay for years because her work spills over with humanity and seeks to illuminate the struggles of ordinary people in battle zones.
Her new book, Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield, reflects the great breadth of the veteran journalist’s vision, which articulates a limitless curiosity about the Islamic heartland in the Mideast.
McKay’s book deals with the rise and fall of the Islamic State. Her chapter on “Freed Fallujah” from July 2016 is a brutal reminder of the ideology that animated the Islamic State movement: “Differing accounts were a testament to the mistrust and fear that pervaded the city. Under ISIS control, Friday morning prayers were followed by mass executions in the public square. Sometimes people were locked in cages with ravenous wild animals; sometimes they were blown up. Sometimes they were set on fire and other times they were driven over by armored vehicles.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL REVIEW
“Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield” is available on Amazon.com.
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Dispatches from Afghanistan: Why the Taliban won’t agree to international demands, the ongoing suicide training schools and plans to legalize the opium/heroin trade