(Gul Bukhari is a Pakistani journalist and rights activist. The column first appeared in The Quint on September 9, 2021)
- Twenty years on, a second significant September 11 is upon us, and Afghanistan is bleeding once again. Several massacres and human rights abuses were committed at the hands of the Taliban ahead of Kabul’s fall. Now, the Taliban has re-formed a hardline government and restored the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan exactly on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of America’s invasion of the country. The same old guard is back in the driving seat, with no women in the Cabinet, and with a few token non-Pashtuns. This in a country that had over 27% women in Parliament just a month ago. The Chief Executive and the Interior Minister both have millions of dollars of bounty on their heads. The Ministry of Vice and Virtue is back, and the Ministry of Women stands abolished. It is back to square one, with the country literally handed back to the same savages it was freed from.
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