By Mohammed Hossein, with John Janson-Moore.
A moral obligation…
The future of Afghanistan and its people depend on it.
Mohammed Hossein has started a new life in Australia but still has strong links to Afghanistan (© John Janson-Moore)
I was 14 years of age when the Taliban first captured Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on the 26th of September, 1996. Back then, as the Taliban entered the city, the people of Kabul were enormously excited, fed-up with years of civil war, corruption and anarchy. I can vividly remember the Taliban’s arrival. They were mostly wearing large black and white turbans, holding AK47s and shoulder-mounted missile launchers, rolling in on the backs of Toyota utes. At the time, they were warmly welcomed by the city’s residents who were hoping for stability and a chance to get on with their lives. I also remember the public execution of former president Mohammad Najibullah on the first day that the Taliban arrived into Kabul. It shocked me. It was the first of many executions I witnessed during my remaining years under the reign of the Taliban. The false dream that the Taliban were offering soon turned into a nightmare.
The speed of which the Taliban took Kabul 25 years ago, like the events of today, was rapid - almost miraculous. But Afghanistan - and especially the capital – was a different place back then. In 1996, the Taliban were seen by many of the residents of Kabul as “angels of peace”, who would bring justice, uproot corruption, and reinstate law and order. People were saying, “Angels are helping the Taliban defeat their enemies”. But as soon as the Taliban established themselves, they began rounding up their “enemies”. People were arbitrarily detained and tortured. Grounds for arrest ranged from having long hair, to having too short a beard, wearing jeans or even being too clean and tidy. The only way to secure freedom was to inform on others who had worked for the previous regime, or who belonged to different political parties. I personally witnessed numerous people who were seized by the Taliban, tortured and beaten to the point where they could not walk, before being released from captivity. The Taliban’s favourite method of torture was to tie people up and beat them with a metal cable. The beatings could go on for hours. And later, I witnessed worse – the chopping off of hands and shootings, scarring and traumatising people forever.
I was 15 when I was captured by the Taliban.
I was never asked a single question, nor told why I had been detained…
A 14 year-old Mohammed Hossein in Kabul, 1996, just months before the Taliban took Afghanistan’s capital the first time around (supplied)
My father was a medical doctor who, throughout his whole life, never associated with any political party. He was taken by the Taliban and accused of working for the previous regime and for spying for a foreign state. He was beaten, tortured and suffocated. But he survived and was later released. He was more than 70 years old.
I was 15 when I was also captured and tortured by the Taliban, not long after. I was never asked a single question, nor told why I had been detained, nor what I was accused of. My head was placed against my chest, my hands were tied around my neck and my feet were tied to my hands with rope. I felt like I was being forced into a ball. A number of Taliban began beating me with their AK47 butt stocks. I was beaten indiscriminately all over my body until I blacked out. Later, when I regained consciousness, I was accused of being the bodyguard of a warlord, who had lived a few blocks away from our residence. Not only had I never met this warlord but while he was in power, some years before, I would have been no older than 12 years of age – an impossibly young bodyguard. My father had to pay a large sum of money to free me from Taliban captivity.
They cannot be believed.
The Taliban brutally tortured and killed many innocent people…
Pictured, during a visit back to Kabul in 2003, after the fall of the Taliban to the US-led occupation (supplied)
These were not isolated cases. Rather, the Taliban brutally tortured and killed many innocent people throughout Afghanistan, committing countless massacres against minorities such as Hazara people in the central Afghanistan, Tajiks in North and other religious minorities such as Shia and Ismailia groups.
Mohammed Hossein fled the Taliban in 2001, arriving in Australia as a refugee (© John Janson-Moore)
Today, when I watch the nightly news about the fall of Kabul once more and receive information on the current situation in Afghanistan from my contacts back home, I sense the same strategy is being employed all over again by the Taliban 2.0. The difference is this time they are providing verbal assurances to the public and the rest of the world that they have changed and that they will respect human rights. They cannot be believed. There are already accounts of the Taliban identifying individuals who they perceive as their “enemies”. Reuters reports that Afghans accused of working with US-led forces are being rounded up across the country, and Amnesty International are monitoring a suspected massacre of Hazara men in Ghazni, in the southeast. Journalists have been beaten in Jalalabad province and elsewhere. These are only a few examples of the Taliban’s most recent abuses and demonstrate a complete disregard for their own commitment to painting themselves as a more moderate version of their former selves.
Mohammed Hossein with his family at their home in Sydney (© John Janson-Moore)
However, the reality on the ground today is not quite what the Taliban might like people to believe and very different to the events of 1996. The Taliban are short on personnel to control and implement their rule. Some districts are governed by no more than five Taliban soldiers. Large numbers of people from the provinces have fled their advance across the country, seeking refuge on the streets and parks of Kabul. Thousands cram the international airport, desperate to escape the new reign of terror. This time round, there has been no warm welcome for the Taliban in Kabul.
In short, the Taliban are a school of thought based on a belief that their power lies in installing fear in the hearts of the Afghan people. They are imposing a corrupted interpretation of Islam that prevents women from further education and that does not tolerate other minorities and ethnicities. In such an atmosphere, the best-case scenario for the educated and free thinkers, for minorities and for those who do not endorse or share the Taliban’s political philosophy, is that life will be unbearable. In the worst-case scenario, these people will be identified, tortured, imprisoned, beaten, humiliated, and even killed. I am well qualified to talk about the Taliban. I was tortured by them. And I do not want to see today’s people of Afghanistan experience what I suffered at the hands of the Taliban 25 years ago.
Mohammed Hossein hopes for a better life for his children (© John Janson-Moore)
As a moral obligation, all the Western countries that played a part in the past 20 years of the occupation of Afghanistan, must provide quotas to accept refugees escaping the brutal regime of the Taliban. Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. have each already committed to accepting tens of thousands of refugees. The Morrison government in Australia can do the same by offering at least 20,000 humanitarian places, similar in scale to what its predecessors offered during the Syrian turmoil in 2015. The future of Afghanistan and its people depend on it.
Mohammed Hossein fled Afghanistan in 2001 and arrived in Australia as a refugee. He now heads a construction business in Sydney’s northwest and is married with three young children. For the past 6 years, he has run a charity, Imran Care, that aims to aid and support at-risk people in Afghanistan, including widows, people with disabilities and orphans, through the provision of education, food and shelter.
To donate to Imran Care:
BSB: 062 317
A/N: 1099 2356
Account Name: Imran Care
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/584365991705048
COVID-19 has made juggling family and business even more challenging, as events unfold in Afghanistan (© John Janson-Moore)