(Montreal) Quebecer Fakhria Rezaie was only seven years old when her family fled Afghanistan. But she was old enough to remember today that life under the Taliban was “horrible” and “terrifying”.
Mme Rezaie, now 29, who lives in Brossard, remembers that the Taliban takeover in 1998 by the Taliban of Mazâr-e Charîf, the town where she grew up, in northwestern Afghanistan, had was sudden and violent. “They came looking for the men and all the guys 15 and over. We still do not know where they are, especially my uncle, who was kidnapped, and to this day we have not heard from them. There is no more hope, ”she drops in an interview.
“The memories I have are horrible, certain events stay with you when you are a child and it never goes away”, admits Mme Rezaie, who is now a freelance human resources advisor. “I have memories like that. It’s very wild, terrifying, there is no more humanity. ”
The Taliban took control of the country at a surprisingly rapid rate as soon as US troops began to withdraw on 1is May, thus ending two decades of US military presence in Afghanistan. On Sunday, they captured the capital, Kabul, forcing President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country.
The Taliban say they want to form an “inclusive and Islamic” government, and say they have become more moderate since their last time in power. But Afghans living in Canada remain extremely skeptical.
Montrealer Noori Massoud, 30, has been unable to sleep in recent days, fearing for the lives of his family members in Afghanistan. “My body is here, but my mind is there,” he said. We don’t know what’s going to happen: people want to live in peace, but I don’t think it will happen in Afghanistan. ”
Mme Rezaie says that in 1998, his father was taken away by the Taliban, who believed him to be a communist; he was found in prison three months later. This is where his father decided to go. “We left everything behind. We just took the essentials, the clothes, our money, and we rented a car. We ran away. We were really scared, ”says M.me Rezaie. His family lived in Pakistan for three years before moving to Canada.
“My story is that of my family, but I also speak for others I have known and those who are going through the same situation,” she says.
Violence and anarchy
Under the Taliban regime in the 1990s, television and music were banned. Women were not allowed to go to school or work outside the home, and they were required to wear the burqa whenever they appeared in public.
Noori Massoud left Afghanistan in 2014 at the age of 23 to go to England before settling in Canada. “I remember that time was very dark, a lot of bad memories. It is happening again in my country and it is very sad. ”
When the Taliban took control of Kabul, 23-year-old Saddia Rahmanyar spoke to relatives in the capital to check in. His young cousins say they have never seen this kind of violence and lawlessness before.
“The state was lawless for 24 hours: you could do whatever you wanted and get away with it,” she said from Toronto. My cousin claims that in 23 years he had never seen so much chaos. ”
Mme Rahmanyar, who was born in Canada after her parents fled Afghanistan in 1996, has visited her family in Kabul on several occasions over the past five years. Her main concern, she said, is not being able to send them money. “All the banks are closed and no one is working […] I can donate to organizations, but currently cannot send money directly to my family. ”
Montrealer Behzad Nikzad, who has lived in Canada for more than 20 years, thinks especially of a cousin who is finishing her last year of medicine in Herat, the third largest city in Afghanistan. “She worked very hard all her life, she devoted herself to her studies all her life. […] but there she is very afraid that it will be like the last time – that she will not be able to go back to school or to do her job. ”
The Taliban on Tuesday promised to respect the rights of women, to forgive those who fought them for those 20 years and to ensure that Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists.
But Fakhria Rezaie believes these are empty words. She is in fact hoping that international leaders will follow the lead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said on Tuesday that his government would not recognize the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.
“The Taliban can show the world that they are there for peace, but we don’t trust them,” she said. There are still diplomats there, and when they are gone, maybe the Taliban will keep some peace with other countries, but for the Afghans it will be hell. All the progress made in 20 years will be gone in a few moments. ”