A Look Back on Afghanistan

"Afghanistan patrol" by The U.S. Army is marked with CC BY 2.0.

Back in August, the United States officially completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan. This officially ended the 20 year war in the country, the United States’ longest fought war. Amid this withdrawal came the Taliban swiftly entering the Afghan capital of Kabul and completing a takeover of the country at an unprecedented speed.

Ordinary Afghan citizens, as well as many Afghans who were translators or helped the US war effort in other forms, escaped to the United States out of fear in general of the Taliban, but also fear of reprisal for their past affiliations to the United States. To date, approximately 84,600 Afghan nationals have arrived in the United States.

Today, over six months since the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, thousands more translators and other Afghans are still trying to escape.

"Women in Bagram, Afghanistan" by United Nations Photo is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

However, on Sunday February 28, the Taliban announced that moving forward, Afghans will no longer be permitted to leave Afghanistan without a good reason. The Taliban also added that women will be prohibited from traveling without a chaperone. This announcement from the Taliban directly rejected the United States' primary precondition for lifting sanctions as well as the stipulation set forth for the recognition of the government under the Taliban.

According to The Wall Street Journal, in light of this announcement from the Taliban, Taliban fighters have stuck by their word in terms of not permitting Afghans to leave the country without a good reason. For example, fighters have stopped those on their journey out of Afghanistan, specifically on a highway from Kabul to Pakistan. In some cases, the Taliban fighters have also pulled families with suitcases aside to ask about the intention of their travel.

Relating to the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in general, the State Department has said that it was engaging in talks with the Taliban to resolve the issues present in the country. Despite these direct conversations with the Taliban, on February 28 according to the WSJ, the Department said it had still not heard of the Taliban's announcement regarding barring additional people from leaving Afghanistan.

The day after the Taliban made this announcement, on March 1, President Biden delivered his 2022 State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. During this address, Biden touched upon many very present issues and topic areas including:

• Ukraine

• Russian Oligarchs

• Aid to Ukraine

• Putin's War

• American Rescue Plan

• Economic Progress Report

• Bipartisan Innovation Act

• Insulin prices

• Inflation

• Infrastructure

• The cost of childcare

• Pandemic fraud

• Passing the Paycheck Fairness Act

• Covid-19

• Covid tests

• Covid-19 reset

• Crime prevention

• Gun violence

• Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

• Protecting the rights of women through upholding Roe v. Wade

• “Unity Agenda for the Nation”

• Social Media Platforms

• Cancer Moonshot

• Veterans

Throughout this hour-long speech hitting on this wide range of issues, Biden did not once talk about the country's withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of America's longest war or the critical humanitarian crisis that followed this withdrawal. Biden additionally failed to discuss the state of Afghanistan today and the fact that many Afghans are still trying to escape the country and are now explicitly being barred from doing so by the Taliban.

In addition to the fact that so many Afghans are still trying to escape the country now taken over by the Taliban, many Afghan families who were separated during the evacuation just some seven months ago are still struggling to be reunited. Humanitarian conditions in overseas refugee camps also remain inadequate. In his speech, Biden did not touch upon these issues either.

After the United States' withdrawal, Afghanistan did not magically become a safe place for Afghans to live, go to school and have a career. With the Taliban takeover, life in Afghanistan remains abysmal. Women and girls have minimal educational rights, those who aided the United States during the war remain direct targets and those Afghans who did escape to the United States, for instance, are now facing new issues whether that be with finding affordable housing, or structural issues such as resolving their immigration statuses.

With this all said, the situation in Afghanistan is still evolving and the circumstances for Afghans who did successfully flee and find refuge elsewhere are still up in the air.

Follow along for future blogs/articles focusing on immigration.