Afghans: Still hoping 'peace and stability come'

 By Atia Abawi, NBC News Correspondent 

KABUL – Outside the walls of Kabul University, students, professors and passersby go about their day in the capital of Afghanistan. Many are unaware that in a few days it will be the 10th anniversary of one of America’s darkest days.

There is no question that the Sept. 11 attacks changed America and the world. Perhaps no one saw more change than the millions of Afghans who lived under the oppressive Taliban regime that hosted the al-Qaida leaders responsible for the horrific attacks – and as a result have been subjected to 10 years of war.

NBC News’ producer Akbar Shinwari, photojournalist Tony Zumbado and I spoke to a variety of Afghans on the dusty but paved road outside Kabul University to get their perspective on how life has changed – for better or worse – since the attacks of 9/11 and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

‘The Russians did more work for the country’
First we spotted a young man wearing a black suit waiting for his ride. 

Naweed Omar, a 23-year-old psychology student at the university, told us that many Afghans were very excited when America and the NATO coalition came to help –they thought their lives would finally improve. 

But after 10 years that excitement has turned to hopelessness and resentment.

“If we compare America’s arrival to the arrival of the Russians, the Russians did more work for the country,” Omar said comparing the building and infrastructure the Soviets provided Afghanistan in the 1980s to what Afghanistan has seen since 2001. 

“Just look at it, Russia was one country that did so much work and now you have 40 countries who have done nothing,” he added.
Ziarmal Safi, a 25-year-old English literature student, agreed that the international community could have done more in the last decade, but he also believes that the Afghans still need outside help.

“Afghans, they do not have the capacity to take [on] the security or to ensure the security all over in Afghanistan,” he said, “I don’t want America to leave, but I want America to concentrate a little bit more.”

Safi said that the Americans have spent lots of money in Afghanistan but that his own government and the American government have squandered that money by not implementing a system of accountability.

“They’re supporting [the] Afghan government and [the] Afghan people. They give them money, but they don’t ask them where did they spent all this money.”

Women’s rights have changed – for the better
But money and security hasn’t been the only issue. Human rights and women’s rights were in the forefront when the war began, but those issues have been almost forgotten as the focus has turned to talks of Taliban reconciliation and international withdrawal.

Many Afghan women have stories of banishment and humiliation before 2001.  During the Taliban regime, women were restricted from working, receiving an education or even leaving their house without being escorted by a male relative.

“When the Taliban were here we always say it was really the dark, dark condition here.  Even the people of Afghanistan couldn’t believe that they are human,” Yalda Mojadidi, a 23-year-old psychology student at Kabul University, told me.

Mojadidi said that with the arrival of the Americans and the international community, much has changed in her life and the lives of women throughout the country – she was finally allowed to go to school again.

“[There] is lots of changes for us,” she said in English, “Especially for women.  They can go to university, college, school, anywhere and they can work as well.”

Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images

US soldiers gather near a destroyed vehicle and protect their faces from rotor wash, as their wounded comrades are airlifted by a Medevac helicopter from the 159th Brigade Task Force Thunder to Kandahar Hospital Role 3, on August 23, 2011. Click on the photo to see a complete slideshow of pictures from Afghanistan

Edrees Bahadur, a 21-year-old economics major, agreed with Yalda. He said that Sept. 11 changed Afghanistan for the better by bringing attention to the country’s dire situation.

“America with its alliance came to Afghanistan and Afghanistan [gained] an independent government – so that caused Afghanistan to improve and to strengthen their capacities,” he said.

But Bahadur and Mojadidi warn that their country still needs the help of the international community.

“My hope for Afghanistan is that peace and stability [will] come,” Mojadidi said. “The foreigners should not go from Afghanistan, they should stay here.  If they go back, I think that the situation [of] 10 years before – it will come again.”

Some still long for the good old days
But there are still some who welcomed the days of the Taliban and a strict Islamic government.

Those people – usually men – tell stories of not worrying about air assaults and criminal gangs in the Taliban days. 

“During the Taliban time, if you had a sack full of money on your back and you put that on the road and left it there, nobody would touch it – nobody had the courage to touch it,” 40-year-old teacher Haji Shadeem of Paktika province told us.

Shadeem believes his country has spiraled out of control.  

“Everyone [now] has worries that they will be killed on any day. They are waiting for their death.  And we don’t know from which side,” he said, fearing both the insurgency and NATO forces.  

View the original article here