On Cue

 As a pakistani it becomes quite inevitable not to ignore whats happening right next door. I had an Afghani friend as a child and I remember she often dropped in to have breakfast with our family. I loved her confidence and we played a lot. Its been long since I last saw her. We were just five or six then.

Fast forward 35 years and I see similiar innocent afghan faces in Pakistan. Refugees crossing over maybe or have already crossed over. As a layman with only text book knowledge of afghan crisis and our relationship with the country I never found them to be as backward as depicted in most western documentaries. They had a society quite similar to that in Syria, Egypt and Lebenon before war and dictatorship ruined all these countries.

All that is always discussed about Afghanistan is mostly about who won and who lost. The way we talk about them also just makes them collateral damage. When I read the religious zealots claiming the Taliban take over as victory at last I feel empty and when I see western reports of people fleeing Afghanistan. Women struggling to make a space for themselves in their own society. I again feel empty.

Who to trust? What to believe?

So I change my lens from observation and invert it to a common bond I share with all those who suffer around the world. That of life and humanity. That lens shows me hope in the beautiful faces of afghani children but it also shows me carelessness in the eyes of their elders. My lens cannot provide data to reduce human beings to statistics and strategies but yes it does provide me with the courage to call out all those responsible for making humanbeings suffer as evil. Be they Taliban or the US.

This necessity to support the idiocy of those who belong to my faith escapes me. This assumed necessity guides most of the faithful here in Pakistan too. It's alarming to see Islam reduced to a game of chess. Downright blasphemous. Pakistan has suffered much because of this strategic game. Pakistan is made of real human lives. So human beings have suffered because of this.

Those who hunger for power and control do so not for the welfare of humanity. They do it to win out of fear of loosing and that is why I believe they have already lost. They loose reason, they loose aim and they loose courage.

So many generations of Afghans have left their own country. Will they return under Taliban Rule? Will the Taliban offer them the space they deserve after such a long desertion?

I dont know but I know one thing for sure that unless they do there will be no hope for them.

And enough to the narratives now. No more please.

Good Taliban , Bad Taliban, Obama or Biden.

All you did was kill. Lets see if you can do anything else.

Saima Sher Fazal