The fall of Kabul has separated families

Just a year ago, Farhad Wajdi was in Kabul with his parents and siblings, directing a non-profit who put local women in street food carts.

They were attracting headlines from the international media and were gaining support from US-based NGOs and the Afghan government. But now, the Taliban return to power in the country, what happened much faster than was possible for U.S. or Afghan officials, has turned the family’s fortune upside down and split it between the two countries.

USA he withdrew the last remaining troops from Afghanistan on Monday, marking the end of 20 years of war in the country. But the legacy of U.S. actions in the country will be lived through by families like Wajdi’s, as well as by the horrific and often perverse consequences they suffer. Wajdi’s organization received recognition from outlets such as the Guardian, BBC News and Al Jazeera, as well as recognition and financial support from international organizations such as the US-based Asia Foundation and Global Citizen. The Afghan government also provided him with non-profit engines. But that attention is what forced him to leave his country last year, and now his family is in danger.

Wajdi lives in Virginia, where he went in search of asylum last year after his life was threatened by ISIS militants, he said. He went to America before his parents and siblings, and eventually planned to join them, but none of them realized how little time they had left before the government fell. Since the Taliban brought to power, Wajdi’s family has been in hiding, and has contacted everyone he knows to try to evacuate them. A lot of people and organizations have tried, but nothing has worked.

Their family’s food cart was a non-profit cart that allowed women to sell quick meals like pasta and rice to Kabul pedestrians. Street food is popular in Kabul, but is usually sold by men. When Wajdi started the organization with the help of her family in 2010, one of the problems was that women had to push carts themselves, and that was a taboo, Wajdi said. “Culturally, pushing a woman on a cart is considered very bad,” she said.

As a result, Wajdi and his father, who were knowledgeable about electronics, worked together to design solar-powered carts. The mother, she said, advised and assisted the cart vendors. Wajdi said they were verbally abused and threatened, but the carts helped them earn money for their families, which was a big difference for those who were widows.

Last year, due to COVID-19 in Afghanistan after street food vendors were unable to operate, there were carts. become a mobile disinfection unit.

“Seeing that my mother empowered herself helped me make my vision clearer, that I need to help more women be like my mother,” Wajdi said.

But not everyone supported the project. Last summer, Wajdi began receiving threatening phone calls.

“With fame, we came at a risk,” he said. “A man called me from a private phone and said you were promoting Western ideology in Afghanistan.”

More calls came. At first, he didn’t take them seriously. But then he received a Facebook message, which he shared with BuzzFeed News, “to reach his destination [his] workplace and home ”and that“ his ultimate destination will be hell ”. The account he posted, which still appears to be on Facebook, was identified as part of the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, an ISIS regional affiliate that uses the historical name of a region that includes parts of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. The message said that Wajdi hazar minority women were intended to be employed as cartwrights. “If you surrender yourself to us, we can reduce your punishment,” he said.

“I was scared,” Wajdi said. He closed the office and moved about 40 carts to an area near his home. His parents took the threats seriously. Living in the war showed them that they needed to.

The family decided that Wajdi would travel to Virginia in search of asylum because he already had a tourist visa to the United States and had an uncle who lived there. Parents who did not have a U.S. visa could not go with him.

It was a tough decision, but at the time, Wajdi thought he could finally help his parents get along with him. But then everything changed.

“As soon as the Taliban took over, we quickly abandoned our home,” the parents told BuzzFeed News in an email. Neighbors told them the militants broke into their home when they were outside and searched the place, asking about them. The day the Taliban crossed Kabul, Wajdi saw TV news about people coming to the airport, and there were rumors that Afghans were boarding planes because they were in the right place at the right time. It was dangerous, but considering the threats, being left behind could have been worse.

Wajdi’s parents decided to take a risk. With their children, they left everything except a few bags of food and drink, asking a neighbor to look at the house. During the day, they stayed in areas near the airport so as not to miss the opportunity to sleep on the street and move from door to door based on rumors of where people were allowed to enter. Shaking the papers, they shouted for help from foreign military officials and interpreters. No one would intervene.

They ran out of water while they were at the airport, Wajdi said. “Only people can pass – you’re just your documents and your children. No bags, no luggage.”

The family spent days camping near the airport, praying for evacuation. (BuzzFeed News is hiding their names to protect their safety.) Wajdi spent the night on the phone with his mother, charging an cell with an electric bank. His two parents used to say the same thing: “Son, no progress is being made.” He spent days calling on anyone he could help, from foundations to him, to American and European journalists and friends.

Terrorists bombed Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday, murder at least 170 Afghans as well as 13 members of the U.S. service, Wajdi’s family was outside the airport — but at another door, where they heard an explosion but felt no effect. Now they are hidden again. Wajdi learned of the bombing in the news: he immediately tried to make a phone call, but was unable to contact his parents. “I was so worried,” he said. Eventually, when the cell signal returned, it could be contacted.

Now that the U.S. is out of Afghanistan, Wajdi is trying to keep hope alive. The Taliban he ordered allowing Afghans with visas or foreign passports to other countries to leave, but Wajdi does not believe them.

“It’s very hard,” he said. “When you’re watching the situation on TV, when you see the future of your country, it looks very sad. You think, what if one day you run your parents in front of your eyes?

These days, his mind is full of what it takes. Wajdi regrets the overly rosy projections made by the Afghan and American governments about the stability of Kabul. “That’s why my mom and dad didn’t have a passport anymore,” she said. “We were not mentally prepared to leave the country.” If Wajdi hadn’t trusted a friend in the Afghan government who wanted to dispel fears that the Taliban would defeat the military quickly, he might see that coming.

“It looks like we’re still in a dream,” he said. “How is it possible to change things so quickly? I never thought everything would fall so easily. ”