Inteligencia y Seguridad Frente Externo En Profundidad Economia y Finanzas Transparencia
  En Parrilla Medio Ambiente Sociedad High Tech Contacto
En Parrilla  
 
28/07/2017 | A Seed Sown By the West -Afghanistan's Young Liberal Elites Challenge the Taliban

Susanne Koelbl

A young, liberal elite has emerged in Kabul, including many women. It is taking a stand against the Taliban's atrocities in the form of political and artistic initiatives and wants to put an end to Afghanistan's culture of violence.

 

Sitting in her house in Kabul, where two steel gates provide security from the street, Shaharzad Akbar is talking about overcoming hatred. The 29-year-old, who holds a master's degree in development studies from Oxford University, wears a colorfully embroidered Bedouin dress over her tight jeans.

In January, the Taliban murdered one of her best friends, Abdul Ali Shamsi, the deputy governor of Kandahar. He wasn't much older than she is. On the day of his murder, he had met with diplomatic visitors from the United Arab Emirates. A bomb had been hidden in the upholstery of a sofa in the governor's office. It killed 13 people.

Shamsi and Akbar had co-founded a group called Afghanistan 1400, a movement of young, well-educated Afghans who campaign for putting an end to the civil war in Afghanistan. On the day of her friend's murder, says Akbar, a young spokesman for the Taliban had attended a workshop with members of the movement.

"At that moment, I hated that man from the bottom of my heart, because it was the Taliban that had killed my friend," says Akbar. "But that is precisely the point: We need to stop hating." After 16 years of fighting, she says, many members of the Taliban also yearn for peace.

How can someone continue pursuing a cause when their best friend, their brother or their child has been murdered by a suicide bomber? How can someone endure the brutality that pervades everything in Afghanistan, day after day?

Some 3,498 civilians were killed in the country last year, most of them in bomb attacks. About 7,000 members of the Afghan security forces also died, bringing the death toll to an average of about 30 a day -- an intolerable number.

'This Murderous Frenzy Has to Stop'

The capital Kabul resembles a fortress. It is currently undergoing its bloodiest period since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion. Bomb attacks are commonplace. One of the worst attacks ever perpetrated in the capital struck the German Embassy on May 31. More than 150 people died and 460 were injured when 1.5 tons of explosives went off. The embassy building was almost empty, but the terrorists killed many employees of the Roshan telephone company who were housed in a building across the street. Almost all the dead were young university graduates, the kinds of people who could have helped rebuild the country.

Spiegel (Alemania)

 



 
Center for the Study of the Presidency
Freedom House