Afghanistan

By Muhammad Sani Usman

If you are an introvert and, worst of all, you don’t want to go out and meet strangers, or you are not financially stable enough to explore the world you romanticise in your head, then you should read fictional books.

Consider The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini for a unique perspective on Afghanistan. Unlike the war-torn image often portrayed in American movies, Hossien’s narrative paints a different picture. He depicts a flowing country, with small boys flying kites in the streets of Kabul and the vibrant Afghan holidays like Nowruz. 

You will learn about friends and kinship. There is Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman, and Hassan, the son of their family servant, who grew up together in Kabul. Despite their different social statuses, they are inseparable as children. They spend their days flying kites, with Hassan being the best kite runner, always ready to retrieve the kite Amir cuts down. 

If you don’t know what betrayal is by a friend, then you should look at how Amir witnesses Hassan being sexually assaulted but chooses to do nothing out of fear and selfishness. This event haunts Amir, leading to guilt and a sense of betrayal that defines much of his life.

If you are still wondering about the lengths people go to with the ones they love, you will see how Amir chooses to marry Soraya (his girlfriend), accepting her past and the societal judgment that comes with it. In essence, you will see matured and refined love between Hassan and Soraya.

You will only get all this information from creative writers pushing the world close to you. 

Muhammad Sani Usman wrote muhdusman1999@gmail.com. 

By Sabiu Abdullahi 

In response to evolving societal norms and economic challenges, fifty couples recently embarked on a shared matrimonial journey at a prominent Kabul wedding hall.

The atmosphere at the City Star wedding hall near the airport was somewhat sombre, reflecting the curtailed festivities enforced since the return of the Taliban in August 2021.

With dancing and music now considered un-Islamic, weddings have transitioned into more subdued affairs. 

Roohullah Rezayi, an 18-year-old groom, shed light on the financial strain that led him and his peers to opt for this collective celebration.

Hailing from the Hazara Shiite minority and earning a meagre income from odd jobs, Rezayi revealed that a conventional wedding would have cost between 200,000 to 250,000 Afghanis ($2,800 to $3,600).

In contrast, the joint ceremony significantly reduced expenses to a range of 10,000 to 15,000 Afghanis. 

The Selab Foundation’s intervention proved crucial, offering each couple a substantial donation of $1,600.

Beyond monetary support, the newlyweds received practical essentials, including toothpaste, shampoo, and moisturiser, as well as household appliances, carpets, and blankets, to help them embark on their married life. 

Despite the male-only attendance and the absence of women until after lunch, the event garnered considerable interest, drawing attention to the changing dynamics of weddings in Afghanistan.

The large, chilly hall echoed with Quranic recitations and a speech from an official representing the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. 

This joint wedding, born out of necessity and adaptation, provides a glimpse into a pragmatic approach to matrimony amidst challenging circumstances.

The Selab Foundation’s initiative attracted an overwhelming 600 applicants, underscoring the need for alternative, cost-effective options in a society navigating shifts in cultural practices.

By Aliyu Sa’adatu

Disturbing images and news keep coming out of India where Muslim men and women continue to be harassed and prosecuted by Hindu zealots, but little has been done or said about it. There has not been the intervention of International Human Rights Watch or the United Nations, much less an outcry from the United States. The US has, over the years, designated and paraded itself as the human rights violation police, overseeing and monitoring cases of abuse across the world.

Could the lens of the US be partial?

Lately, there has been a surge in Islamophobia across the US, Europe and other countries like India. Hindu elements beat Muslims, rip apart their homes and businesses and rape their women day in day out. These thugs are emboldened by the nationalist campaign to create an exclusive Hindustan by some of its prominent leaders of the BJP party and even the so-called prime minister Narendra Modi. Yet, the United Nations and the US have been silent over the years as more crimes against humanity are being perpetrated against Indian Muslims.

What set the Taliban apart from the BJP?

The Taliban in Afghanistan wishes to formulate a Muslim State where Sharia, in its strictest form, is used as the basis of governance. It has, over the years, fought foreign government out of the country, establishing the kind of state it wanted even though the system of governance put in place and proposed by the Taliban is considered to be inclined towards extremism as women’s rights to things like education and work continue to be denied.

Over the start of its rule in the late 1990s, records of violations and abuses have been filed of men and women subjected to public beating, amputation in case of theft. In addition, girls are forcefully taken out of schools as young as the age of ten and condemned to a life of early marriage, to mention a few.

The US and its allies have seen these as offensive and unacceptable, but it has repeatedly perceived these acts practised by the Taliban as highly condemnable and unprogressive. Whereas in 2002, Narendra Modi is said to have fuelled the brutal crackdown on Muslims in Gujarati when he was governor of the state and is doing the same as we speak, as he seeks to rid off the nation of Muslims to establish an exclusive Hindu state. Yet I do not see the prying lens of the United States shifting to cover the crimes committed against Muslims. I do not see it calling out the prime minister of India asking him to end every violence perpetrated against its minority religious population as Modi seeks to obliterate Muslims off the face of India.

To this day, his actions continue to fuel and encourage the Hindu majority population as they continue to terrorize the lives of their minorities like Muslims and Christians alike. Now I ask: what set aside the Taliban’s mandate from that of Narendra Modi? What even sets Modi’s nationalist agenda apart from that of ISIL, who brutally prosecuted minorities, like the Hazaris’ and Kurds’ in Syria and Iraq subjected to beheadings and widespread rape of women and girls in a bid to establish an Islamic State? We all have criticized their approach and activities. Why then is the West and its allies turning blind eyes to this crisis as Muslims continue to suffer in the hands of extremist Hindus’ and Narendra Modi as he rakes the path to establishing the so-called Hindustan?!.

The hypocrisy of the West and the Muslim witchhunt

The West is quick to find a faulting de facto Muslim leader of a country and have him investigated, slammed his government with sanctions and in some cases invade his country and eventually have him removed if ever found wanting on crimes committed against humanity. Still, when the leader in question is a non-muslim, they turn blind.

Some months ago, some Hindustani populace went online publicly calling for genocide against Muslims of India. The case went viral. We saw and read across media platforms in the world. The United States probably caught wind of the news, but strange is the way they never respond. When the Burmese military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar six years ago, nobody did anything. Again, I ask why the United States and the rest of the international community are selective in their punishment in response to human rights violations against Muslims worldwide.

A boycott of Bollywood

We Muslims will not sit back and continue to watch the people’s faces who continue to kill our Muslim brothers and sisters in India. So, therefore, my suggestion is we call on the Muslims across the world for a boycott of Bollywood. We will patronize them again only and solely when the ban on Muslims right to worship peacefully without intimidation in India is restored. Their right to live in peace and use public spaces like other Hindu citizens should also be re-issued and guaranteed.

Sa’adatu Aliyu comes from Kogi state. She is a graduate of English Language from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a Masters student in Literature at the same institution. Her email is saadatualiyu36@gmail.com.

By Aminu Mohammed

“Aminu! I cannot travel to Afghanistan. I am afraid that the Taliban will kill me. I am not going anywhere and will rather die in Germany”.

These are the exact words by my friend and neighbour, Suroosh, who incidentally is from Afghanistan. According to him, going to Afghanistan is akin to signing his death warrant. Suroosh also narrated a gory tale about how a relative was hacked to death a few weeks ago by the Taliban just because he worked as a translator for the United States Embassy in Kabul.

This issue got me perplexed, and I became curious about why the Taliban wanted Surrosh dead. My neighbour revealed that he previously worked for an international non-governmental organisation in Kabul before moving to Germany for further studies. This alone puts him on target for elimination by the Taliban if he decides to visit Afghanistan.

I usually perform my Friday prayer at the Afghan mosque in my city here in Kiel. However, from my interaction with some Afghan nationals, I observed that feeling of hopelessness and agony. These people cannot go back to their country for fear of the unknown. Most of those I engaged in conversation with are afraid to go home for fear of being killed by religious zealots.

This article is not about the Taliban or Afghanistan; I want to draw our attention to the negative trend and how lack of proper understanding of Islamic tenets can lead to chaos and anarchy, resulting in mass suffering among the citizens. It should be noted that this discussion with my neighbour took place shortly after the Taliban took over the mantle of leadership in Afghanistan.

I have always refrained from engaging in any discussion about the myriad of challenges bedevilling Northern Nigeria. However, I realised that one could not continue to maintain silence when it comes to issues about one’s homeland. I am compelled to write this because I am worried about the current security situation in the North, especially kidnapping and banditry. The issue at home has become critical that we need to do whatever it takes in one way or the other to change the narrative.

I have observed with keen interest and dismay the incessant verbal attacks and altercation among our people, particularly our youths, over religious issues in various social media platforms and offline. We attack one another and show hatred and bitterness to our fellow Muslims just because of sectarian differences. This has degenerated to the extent that people within a particular sect will be tagging others who do not believe in their doctrine as infidels.

The Islamic scholars from various sects are not left out in this altercation and dangerous trend. Some make uncomplimentary remarks against other scholars and sects during their preaching and sermon, which always elicit amusement rather than condemnation from their audience. This has become constant and worrisome that we must try as much as possible to propagate against this; otherwise, it will not augur well for our society if we all keep quiet and refuse to act.

Let me, first of all, clarify some issues. First,  I am not an Islamic scholar, and I do not claim to have a vast knowledge of Islam. However, having been taught by Sunni Islamic scholars from Pakistan, India, and Egypt at the College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Afikpo, Ebonyi State, I can distinguish between right and wrong in Islam. Our teachers (at Markaz) never taught us to discriminate against other sects or abuse people that do not believe in our doctrine. I still don’t understand why our people dissipate energy on religious arguments and trivial issues to the extent of cursing one another.

Today, the North is no longer secure and safe. People are being hacked to death in large numbers. Religious intolerance has become a significant challenge in our society. We derive joy in casting aspersion on people and mocking those who do not believe in our ideology.  This got me wondering whether there is something wrong with us. Why should we be fighting one another over different doctrines and sects? Is Islam in Nigeria different from the one being practised in other saner climes and countries?

Are we not concerned with the number of out-of-school children, illiteracy, industrial stagnation, high unemployment and the raging inflation in the North?  Are the incessant killings of hapless villagers perpetrated by marauders and bandits in our rural communities not enough to wake us up from our slumber? I am afraid that if we continue on this trajectory, we will wake up one day and discover that we have no place to call home because of what we have done to ourselves.

Afghanistan is in chaos and ruins today because of this religious rascality, and I am afraid the North is heading in that direction. Prayer alone without action cannot stop the calamity that may happen if we fail to take action. Therefore, it behoves us as individuals and groups to start a conversation and see how we can live in unity and harmony with our fellow Muslim brothers irrespective of their sect and ideology.

We should learn to accommodate people in our midst irrespective of the sect they belong to or the religion they practice. We should endeavour to voice out against Islamic preachers who abuse other sects or do not share their ideology.  Tolerance should be our watchword and the only key to our progress and prosperity as a people. We need peace and security for us to grow as a nation.  Silence is no longer a virtue. We cannot remain silent and continue to watch as spectators while our region degenerates into anarchy.

Aminu Mohammed is at the School of Sustainability, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He can be reached via gravity23n@gmail.com.

According to a BBC report, “at least 16 people are dead and 32 injured after an explosion hit a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in the Afghan city of Kandahar.”

This act of terrorism has continued to pester among the Muslim communities in Afghanistan and elsewhere in various Muslim nations, with no clear cause and motive behind it. Such killings are perpetrated in order to tarnish the image of Islam and continue to ridicule the religion in the sight of others.

The recent “blast occurred at the Iman Bargah mosque. Pictures from the scene show shattered windows and bodies lying on the ground while others try to help.

The explosion’s cause is not yet clear but a suicide bombing is suspected.

A local doctor told our source that the injured worshippers were being taken to the Mirwais hospital.

BBC Afghanistan correspondent Secunder Kermani says that IS-K, a local branch of the Islamic State Group, was expected to say it was behind the attack.

Last Friday, a suicide attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in the northern city of Kunduz killed at least 50 people. IS-K said it carried out the attack, which was the deadliest since US forces left at the end of August.

IS-K is violently opposed to the governing Taliban, has carried out several bombings recently.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan after foreign forces withdrew from the country at the end of August following a deal agreed with the US.

It came two decades after US forces had removed the militants from power in 2001.

By Aminu Rabiu Kano

The history of Afghanistan is one characterized by epic tragedy. The narrative of the “Afghan problem” has been diverse, with each actor telling their side of the story in a bid to justify their action or inaction as the case may be. A poor, landlocked Afghanistan is one of the few countries in the world which events happening in and around it have been dominating the headlines for decades. Both the mainstream and social media are obsessed with happenings in the country. Indeed, even the layman on the street is more or less interested in the Afghan problem to the extent that virtually everyone can say one or two things about it. The question that follows, therefore, is, why is the world interested in happenings in Afghanistan? In other words, why are developments in Afghanistan capable of generating reactions around the world? Also, why have the superpowers in history found it necessary to invade Afghanistan?

To answer the above questions, we must begin by establishing the geopolitical relevance of Afghanistan on the world map. Afghanistan is doubtlessly strategically located. It is at the crossroads of Central and South Asia. It borders Pakistan, China, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is predominantly mountainous and inhabited by approximately 32 million people – nearly 45% of whom speak the Pashtun language. Moreover, the Afghan population is primarily Muslim. This reason, coupled with the fact that it borders Iran, Afghanistan is sometimes seen as a part of the “Wider Middle East.”

From the list of the countries bordering Afghanistan, one will realize the geographical importance of Afghanistan in the international political environment. Of the five countries that bordered it, Iran and China stand out. However, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan had been part of the former Soviet Union that fell apart in the 1990s. This implies that Afghanistan has been a neighbour to glorious powers both in the past and present.

Therefore, it was invaded severally by several empires across ages due to its essential, strategic location. For example, Alexander The Great of the Macedonian empire invaded Afghanistan in 330 BC as part of the war against Persia. Alexander saw that he could only get the Persian empire subdued by invading Afghanistan. Similarly, foreign powers such as the Persian Empires, the Mongol Empire led by Khan Ghengis, the Mughal Empire, the Timurid Empire, the Rashidun Caliphate, and the Sikh Empire conquered Afghanistan.

Little wonder, Afghanistan, even in the modern era, grappled with yet other rounds of invasions, but this time around by the “superpowers”. The superpowers being the USA and the USSR. During the cold war, these superpowers used Afghanistan, among other countries, to test their military, economic and political powers. It all started when, in April 1978, the People Democratic Party of Afghanistan overthrew the Afghanistan government. Nur Muhammad Taraki, secretary of the PDPA, became president of Afghanistan. But Taraki’s government was communist in orientation and enacted some policies that were not well received by the masses. Thus, the masses hated government, and, as a result, Taraki was overthrown by Hafizullah Amin in September 1979. Despite the change of government from Taraki to Amin, opposition to communist rule continued even under Amin. In December 1979, Amin was shot and replaced by Babrak Kamal, who was in exile in Moscow. Kamal’s government heavily relied on the Soviet military for support and protection against his vast opponents.

Opposition to the communist government continued, which prompted the USSR to invade Afghanistan, deploying more than 50,000 soldiers. This occupation was even met by fierce resistance by Afghans, who have joined the Mujahedeen – a guerilla movement that proclaimed to be fighting anti-Islamic forces in Muslim lands. The Mujahedeen would later be referred to as the “Taliban”. The Taliban was formed by Mullah Muhammad Umar, who recruited young Muslim students from Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan to fight the Soviet Military. Over the next ten years, hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. In the end, the Soviet military was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan.

However, the mujahedeen (or the Taliban, if you like) did not fight the war alone: they were heavily supported, armed and financed by the USA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. USA was mainly instrumental in its support to the Taliban because it feared that if the USSR succeeded in occupying Afghanistan, its national interests would be threatened. In fact, the US’s intervention was informed by the need to resist the advance of what former President Reagan called the “evil vampire”. Then, the two superpowers – the USA and USSR – were in the heat of the cold war. Therefore, the US saw that if the Soviet Union succeeded in implanting communist rule in Afghanistan, the domino theory would materialize. This means that the USSR would also succeed in spreading communist ideology into those countries neighbouring Afghanistan. Most Fundamentally, by gaining the control of the Middle East, the USSR would determine oil and gas supply to the US and its allies in the West. This meant that the Soviets could do great harm to the US economy and those of its allies by cutting off the oil supply since oil was a vital product so crucial that military and industrial operations heavily depended on it.

After the withdrawal of the Soviet military from Afghanistan, the Taliban formed an Islamic government. Osama Bin Laden – a Saudi citizen – was instrumental in fighting the Soviet army. As the son of a rich and influential citizen in Saudi Arabia, Osama contributed substantial financial resources to the Afghanistan war that lasted for ten years. He later formed Al-Qaeda, which was said to be a terrorist movement determined to liberate the Muslim land from Western influence. On 11 September 2001, 4 aeroplanes were hijacked by, allegedly, the Al-Qaeda. Two were flown to the Twin Towers housing the World Trade Centre, one flown to the Pentagon and the other to Pennsylvania. As a result, more than 5000 people lost their lives, and critical government infrastructures were destroyed.

The US was quick to blame Osama’s Al-Qaeda for the tragic 9/11 event. The US President George Bush soon declared war on terror. The war was first on Afghanistan, which led to the overthrow of the Taliban government. After that, the American forces established a democratic government with its foundation in and allegiance to American imperialism. However, after 20 years of occupation, the Taliban expediently returned to power when the US forces willingly decided to withdraw from Afghanistan.

From the foregoing, three lessons can be learned. One, Afghans have a genetic history of resistance to foreign domination. Second, Afghanistan is a strategic country that played an important part in the Great Game power struggles for centuries. Finally, it is evident from the above that Afghanistan’s series of invasions was no end in itself, but a means to an end. Put it more succinctly, Afghanistan is a gateway for foreign powers. Its invasion would allow the superpowers to dominate the Asian continent, including the oil-rich Arab world. Overall, Afghanistan, despite its myriad of aggression by foreign superpowers, is still in existence. It survives!

Aminu Rabiu Kano is a political and public affairs analyst. He can be reached via 08062669232.

By Muhammad Mahmud 

My fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, I think you will not support the US government’s atrocities meted on the Afghans over the years. However, I know that some of you see nothing wrong with anything western and nothing good with anything the West abhors. Therefore, let me address certain misconceptions and, at the same time, point out what some of YOU seem not to take into consideration. 

Of course, people rely on the West to define who a terrorist is. There is no doubt about that. Before the West labelled the Taliban, a terrorist who, in the whole world, regarded them as one? The western media dictates who is to blame and who is to be sympathised with. The Palestinian struggle with the Zionists’ forces of occupation is a prominent example. The Muslim Brotherhood is also labelled a terrorist group even as they chose to follow the democratic way to pursue Islamic sharia. The same happened to Algeria’s Islamic Salvation Front. 

But let’s use some reasons others deploy regarding the Taliban as a terrorist organisation to prove why people rely on the west to define who a terrorist is. Your argument is often that “many of us see them as terrorists because they are deliberately and indiscriminately killing Muslims and other innocent civilian population.” Now the question is, which of these atrocities hadn’t the US army meted to the “Muslims and other innocent civilian population”? So why do you think that the Taliban fighters are terrorists while you regard the US army as liberators? 

On the other hand, why would America’s violation of the practice of Prophet Muhammad’s rule of engagements not bother you people but the Taliban’s violation bother you to the extent of opposing them and (impliedly) supporting America? You are supposed to oppose both sides if that is the case. I think you are probably, struggling with some misconceptions here, and you are not alone. 

1- That Taliban, having declared that they are following the footpath of the Prophet, shouldn’t deviate from his teachings. This is entirely true. But are we only to oppose Muslims who violated Islamic teachings on the sanctity of lives, or is that also applicable to everyone?

2- Having violated the Prophet’s teachings on the rules of engagements by killing the innocents, the Taliban are to be opposed against the Americans who did not claim to be Muslims. Because the Taliban are portraying Islam in a bad image, this is a big misconception. 

First, it should be clearly noted that even if a Muslim group violated Islamic teachings on the rules of engagements, that does not entirely disrobe them of their status as Muslims. On the contrary, we condemn that act and disassociate ourselves and our religion from that very act and continue to consider them as Muslims. A few examples will suffice here. 

During the time of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Khalid Bn Walid (RA) violated the rules of engagements in one of the wars. It was so grave to the extent that when the report reached the Prophet, he openly condemned and disassociated himself from that act and even supplicated that “O Allah, I disassociate myself from what Khalid did.” But the Prophet did not declare him a terrorist or even ostracised him. 

In another incident, some Muslims killed someone during a war after declaring that he was now a Muslim. When the report reached the Prophet, he became outraged and rebuked them. However, he did not declare them as opponents for violating the rules of engagements; instead, he criticised that very act and chastised them for doing that. 

There were many reports of violations of Islamic rules of engagements even during the wars fought by the Ummah’s most pious generations, yet that is put into context, and a larger picture is considered.

During the Jihad of Dan Fodio, Sheikh Muhammad Bello narrated how some people violated the rules of engagements and how Sheikh Dan Fodio chastised them and disassociated himself from that act. Yet, they continued to be part of his army.

Therefore, from the Islamic perspective, we can condemn and accuse the Taliban of violating Islamic rules of engagement, but that doesn’t mean that we should support non-Muslim armies who perpetrated the same or worst atrocities on fellow Muslims. There is a stark difference between the two factions Islamically.

It is almost a consensus among the Muslim scholars that whenever non-Muslim armies invade any Muslim country, it is a wajib [compulsory] for all to fight and chase them out. 

Now a non-Muslim army invaded a Muslim country, some people jubilated, and the Muslim troops chased them out, we jubilated. Then those who jubilated the invasion started accusing us of supporting “terrorism”, how do you think we would respond?

Malam Muhammad writes from Kano. He can be reached via meinagge@gmail.com.

By Muhsin Ibrahim

The fate of women is on top of the concerns UN, US, EU, among others, expressed since the Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan. However, several observers believe today’s Taliban is different from the 1996-2001 era, which ruled the country with an iron fist.

Reports indicate that the Taliban banned music, curtailed female education, compelled men to keep beards during their previous regime. However, the group’s current leadership had promised to let women go up to the university.

They also promised “amnesty” to all Afghans, including security personnel who worked for the toppled government. In addition, they encouraged journalists to work impartially and urged women to join their government. Nevertheless, working women, particularly journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, expressed fears.

In what many consider a departure from the “dark days” of the Taliban, a female anchor interviewed a Taliban senior member, Abdul Haq Hammad. An Afghan news organisation, TOLO, also tweeted photos of their female staff out in Kabul.

Despite the Taliban promises and other “signs” of changes, people who worked for the US and other foreign countries during the 20-year long occupation are still fleeing the country. At the same time, as Kamal Haidar of Al Jazeera English reported, many others are happy with the Taliban’s return and are, thus, going back to Afghanistan.

The Taliban return to power in Afghanistan twenty years after the US-led coalition ousted them following the 9/11 attacks. Then, the US accused Osama Bin Laden of being behind the attacks and, thus, demanded the Taliban government to hand him over, which they refused.

By Salisu Yusuf

Almost 20 years since the September 11 attacks in the U.S. and the subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, the last Friday’s swift vacation of Bagram Airbase by the U.S forces, the situation in Afghanistan gets worst. The country is becoming more divided; social strife grows, and citizens become more disenchanted. Hostilities between the Hazara Shia minority and mainly Pashtun Sunni majority increases. All over the country, people feel less secure in groups and individually as each one is afraid that the rival militia may attack them. The hitherto communal Afghanistan is fast turning individualistic, especially as a result of Talibans’ follies, misrule, the failure of the sectarian/tribal leadership, the role of Ulama and by the Russian occupation in the 70’s and ’80s, as well as the U.S’s so-called war on terror.

I have never seen a religious sect that clings to power and unorthodoxly turns to folly like the Taliban. They have crossed religious, ethical lines. They ask their members to attack hospitals, with women under labour, children receiving natal care, and other defenceless people receiving treatment. In one instance in 2020, they struck a maternity hospital belonging to the international organisation Medicines Sans Frontiers in Kabul. They gruesomely murdered 24 victims, including impoverished women, children, and babies. A week-old baby was among the dead; another two-week-old baby survived though his mother could not. There has not been a worse unnatural disaster!

Moreover, coordinated, reciprocal attacks by both Sunni and Shia militants are on the rise. I have not seen thoughtless sects like the two groups in Afghanistan/Pakistan axis, where each group asks its members to attack the other while performing obligatory prayers in mosques! And when such attacks are carried out, while the victims’ relatives nurse them and mourn other fatalities, the attackers get euphoric as they believe that they have fulfilled a religious duty. Outrageously they think that should if they die in the process, they would directly go to paradise – as if it belongs to their fathers!

 In addition to such senseless attacks, the Taliban has stepped up on a campaign against girl-child education. As a result, hundreds of innocent girls have been killed on their way to schools because, to them, girls’ education is a deviation from the norm. 

In one such horrendous attack, the vocal Malala Yusafzai is lost to the West. The girl was 11 when she’s shot in the head on her way to school. The girl’s crime was pleading to the Taliban to let girls pursue their educational careers. As the saying goes, the rest is history. Malala is now an Oxford University graduate in philosophy, politics and economics. 

Malala is lost to the West with her two young brothers. Pakistanis could only watch her on T.V. addressing the U.N. Assembly, celebrating her birthday, or receiving Nobel Prizes. If she had not been shot, she would have been in Pakistan, and a practising Muslim, whose talent might have been used in teaching and aspiring young girls. Girls like Malala could have been used to heal the growing social division between Sunni and Shia; alas, she’s lost to Europe.

More painful is the list of Nadia Nadim. A more intelligent and talented girl who’s also lost to the West. Nadia’s father was also killed by the Taliban when she’s a child. Under a false identity, the girl fled Afghanistan on a truck at just 11 years. She’s currently living in Denmark, studying reconstructive surgery. Nadia, like Malala, is lost to the West. Her colossal talent would have been more beneficial to Afghanistan because she’s a prospective scientist. Nadia speaks 11 languages. She also plays football for the Danish National Team, scores 200 goals, making her a celebrity.

If Nadia’s father lived, she would have been left to pursue her career, would have been in Afghanistan practising Islam. She could have been a medical doctor, possibly assisting thousands of Afghan women in need of medical care. But, alas, she’s lost to football, playing a celebrity role, her beauty being explored, etc. 

The above are a few lessons to Nigerian youth who sympathise with terrorist groups like Boko Haram. Such groups are in for regression rather than progression.

While the so-called Doha Peace Conference between the Afghan government and Taliban is in progress, the country is hotly on the brink of another civil war. The Taliban is advancing towards Kabul, inciting more antagonism while the country suffers from brain drain; indeed, it’s Talibans’ folly, but Western gains.

Salisu Yusuf teaches at the Department of English, Federal College of Education, Katsina. He can be reached via salisuyusuf111@gmail.com.