The Taliban is back in power in Afghanistan, some 20 years after their ouster by the United States in 2001. Images on news networks showing desperate people flooding the Kabul International Airport trying to flee the country are heartbreaking. In an interview on CNN, Roya Rahmani, Afghan ambassador to the US, and a woman, said that it was not just the multitudes rushing to the airport who would like to leave, but millions of others are hiding in their homes.
Zarifa Ghafari, one of the first female mayors, told a journalist that she was waiting to be killed by the Taliban. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, fearing the return of terror, has called on the Taliban to exercise restraint and protect the rights of all people, especially women and children. Other countries have also expressed fears of a return to what an Afghan has described as “the darkest days”.
