On 9/11, Afghans remember the good, bad, ugly

KABUL (AA) – Dozens of people dressed in the latest fashion step out of their luxury cars in the huge parking lot and head to the building under the blaze of sparkling lights.

Welcome to one of Kabul's major wedding halls.

A group of people line up to welcome the guests, their right hands on their chests in a traditional show of respect to those attending the wedding.

Standing in front of the glitzy wedding hall, decorated with pulsing multi-colored lights, Akhtar Mohibi, 42, appreciates the improvements the country has seen since the "bad old days" under the Taliban.

"I have lived in Kabul my entire life," Mohibi told Anadolu Agency before joining the wedding party. "I saw many ups and downs, but I never saw such development in Kabul city's infrastructure as I do now."

According to the Kabul municipality, hundreds of wedding halls, private hospitals, schools, colleges, townships, shopping malls and hotels have been built in the capital alone within the last 12 years.

Roads have been paved and most Kabul residents now have regular power supply.

Similar developments have been seen in other big cities of Afghanistan, with paved roads now linking most provinces to Kabul.

More than 8,000 roads were paved countrywide during the same period, according to authorities.

Under the Taliban, which ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, Afghanistan could boast only 60 kms of paved road.

"It was the dream of every Afghan to see development in the country, because everything was demolished during the Russian invasion and then the civil war in the 1990s," Kabul resident Murad Ali Jaffari told AA.

He believes Afghanistan would have developed three times as much had the country enjoyed a modicum of peace.

"The 9/11 attacks were a tragic incident; there were huge human loses," Jaffari asserted.

"But when it comes to Afghanistan, it brought good news for Afghans because we were desperate for help to get rid of the Taliban."

"Of course there was peace… during the Taliban's time. No one could even think of committing a crime, but there was no economic development; people were starving," he added.

- Nightmare

Senator Heela Achakzai, for her part, says Taliban rule was a nightmare.

"I was living in the remote Uruzgan province at the time," she told AA. "Women were imprisoned in their homes. There was no sign of development for women at that time."

"But the 9/11 incident changed everything. The darkness ended and everyone got their rights," the lawmaker said.

Achakzai asserted that now most young Afghans are educated, women play a role in politics and can work in any field.

Very few girls were allowed in school under the Taliban, with most attending underground educational institutions.

Today, by contrast, there are some 2.6 million girls enrolled in schools nationwide, according to the Ministry of Education.

Under the Taliban, women were forced to wear the burqa, a long black dress that conceals the entire body and face.

"Now I'm afraid all these achievements might be endangered after foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan," said Achakzai.

The lawmaker argues that the last decade's achievements will be reversed if the country falls into another bout of civil war following next year's scheduled departure of US-led forces.

But Mohamed Hassan Yaqyar, a writer and independent political analyst, does not agree.

He believes that many of those involved in the civil war in the 1990s have witnessed the fruits of development and would not want to see the country destroyed again.

"I think there will be a political peace deal if all foreign forces are out of the country," he told AA.

Haqyar believes the 9/11 attacks impacted Afghanistan both positively and negatively.

"During Taliban rule, [Afghanistan's] relations were broken with the [rest of the] world and the world ignored Afghanistan because of the Taliban," he said.

"But 9/11 shifted the world's attention once again to Afghanistan."

He described the enormous rebuilding process in Afghanistan within the past 12 years as "unprecedented."

- Fear

Still, Haqyar believes that the US-led foreign forces returned many former warlords to power, drawing the ire of many Afghans.

"Foreign forces kept killing innocent people in this period, which brought huge mistrust," he said.

The majority of people living in southern and eastern Afghanistan, who have been the most affected by militancy, agree.

Abdul-Rahman Safi, a 55-year-old resident of the eastern Kunar province's Manogi district, told AA that locals continued to live in fear of sudden death.  

"Will [infrastructure] development save me from a bomb explosion or suicide attack?" he asked. "We suffered a lot here during the war."

"The Taliban disturb us at night. They attack us too," Safi fumed. "Meanwhile, our villages are being bombarded by foreign forces."

Thousands of civilians have been killed and injured since the US-led invasion in 2001, but the Afghan government has not been able to provide a reliable casualty toll.

A UN report issued on July 31 indicated a recent increase in civilian deaths.

According to the report, more than 1,319 people were killed and 2,533 injured as a result of the war from January 1 to June 30 of this year – up 23 percent from the same period the previous year.

The report blamed 74 percent of the casualties on militant attacks, 9 percent on pro-government forces and 12 percent on ground fighting between the two sides.

Safi believes the 9/11 attacks will prove unique in history.

"That [9/11] was a nightmare for a number of people in America," he said.

"But they must also realize that Afghans have lost more lives in the past decade than they did in the 9/11 attacks."

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