Around 200 Americans and other foreign nationals are scheduled to fly out of Afghanistan today for Qatar as international passenger flights from Kabul airport are expected to resume. Tens of thousands of Afghans, including many who qualify for U.S. special visas, are still hoping to evacuate, but their fate remains unclear.
Meanwhile, the Taliban continues to form its government, restoring its “Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.” The move stoked fears the new regime will again use violence to suppress women’s rights and enforce strict morality codes related to dress and daily activities for all Afghans. This is an Afghan student and activist, Fariba Bikzad.
Fariba Bikzad: “The Taliban came. And if people don’t get killed in the war with the Taliban, they die because of poverty and misery and because of depression and despair. I am a student. I am a civil society activist. Since the Taliban came to power, people have been terrified. People can’t understand whether they are dead or alive. They are like the walking dead.”