25 Years in Afghanistan review – the extraordinary life of an optimist

August 17, 2026 Analytical articles

Phil Harrison

Mir Hussain remembers the first time he saw a video camera: “I looked at it and it looked straight back at me.” His relationship with this all-seeing eye has broadened and deepened in the years that followed. Since 2002, when Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi first started documenting his story, Mir has lived an extraordinary life: grinding poverty and impossibly hard work, eking out a living in the mountainous Bamiyan province and then in urban Afghanistan, but combined with a remarkable level of exposure to the world, via modern media.

Mir and his family first appeared on our screens in 2021, in the Bafta-winning film My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan. This updated reversioning of that film contains plenty of the same footage but also, in a telling update, hits very differently in the light of what happened that year. In April 2021, US president Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of American soldiers from Afghanistan. Essentially, the US (and their allies, including Britain) abandoned the country to the Taliban extremists. The knowledge of this incipient horror looms unavoidably large; the whole film now feels like foreshadowing.

“This is the story of my country,” says Mir. “A country that, despite everything, I love.” As even casual students of modern history will know, the word “everything” is doing a lot of work in that sentence – Afghanistan’s recent history has included invasions and occupations by Russia and America, and military engagements with other countries in the region, too. Afghanistan has gained a reputation for being unconquerable, but it’s tragic that every decade or so, someone still feels the need to test this.

This documentary offers an insight into life at the sharp end. Mir is a bright kid, but he often misses school because he has to plough the fields, or drive his family’s donkeys or work down a coalmine. He’s remarkably ebullient as a child: “We lived in a cave. It was quite good fun.” All the time, American planes fly overhead and the family gaze at them, hoping they might represent salvation and progress. The grim, hardscrabble details of their lives are interspersed with the airy pledges of politicians including George W Bush, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In this new film, every public proclamation by a foreign leader feels like pitch-rolling for the betrayal we know is coming. Meanwhile, the poverty gets worse. “I never thought I’d end up eating grass,” says Mir’s mother, Murwarid. The footage is extraordinary – as intimate a depiction of a family in extremis as you can imagine.

Eventually, Mir marries a woman called Shukria, starts a family and moves to Mazar-i-Sharif – and, when he can’t find work there, on to Kabul. Nothing doing there either. Then, in what should be the film’s central twist, he has a brainwave. “I grew up being filmed,” he says. “So I asked the film-makers if they could help me.” There’s a subtle, entirely understandable bending of the rules of documentary making here. Should the directors be altering the trajectory of the story they are telling? But if they have the ability to help, how could refusing be morally justified? And in any case, doesn’t their constant presence in Mir’s life mean they are influencing it anyway?

Soon, Mir is a camera operator. The film-makers find him work in Kabul and the story gains a dimension. Now, Mir is its subject and, in another context, a professional observer himself. He turns out to be brave and resourceful, specialising in recording the aftermath of suicide bombings. He also diversifies into filming live sport. In a less turbulent country than Afghanistan, we’d be glancing tentatively in the direction of a happy ending.

But no – in 2021, the western forces rolled out and the Taliban rolled back in. For women in particular, life became brutally circumscribed by religious dogma. Fittingly, therefore, in the parts of the documentary recorded in 2026, Shukria is given more space to speak for herself. The couple have had a fourth child, a girl. Shukria regrets this. Mir’s television work has dried up and he’s been forced to return to manual labour. Her husband “doesn’t think that deeply” about anything much, she says. “Mir has gone backwards. He has no plans.” As postscripts go, it’s incredibly sad. Even in their moments of greatest adversity, Mir and Shukria always kept a twinkle in their eyes. But now, the couple seem hesitant and lost. “We are all stuck in this backwardness,” says Shukria.

Right from the start, when it was documenting a small, instinctively cheerful boy and his embattled family, this film managed to sidestep grinding misery. It was geopolitics writ cleverly small, but love and laughter were able to find their place alongside struggle. Throughout, there’s something undeniable about Mir: he has a remarkable capacity for optimism. For that reason, this 25th anniversary update casts a darker shadow altogether. From the moment Mir Hussain first looked at a video camera, he’s been central to a remarkable story. Let’s hope it’s not quite over yet – and that any future instalments might have a happier tale to tell.

They fought for the U.S. in Afghanistan. Now they worry about losing their green cards

August 17, 2026 Current News Articles

Ximena Bustillo

All Things Considered

National Public Radio

August 15, 2026

Hundreds of Afghans who fought alongside U.S. troops and supported the U.S. government in Afghanistan are now worried their green cards could be revoked.

In Afghanistan, their efforts ranged from custodial jobs at the U.S. embassy, to technology and engineering roles with U.S. contractors and companies. Some were on the frontlines of combat as interpreters.

In the years leading up to the U.S.’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Kabul, Congress and the Biden administration facilitated several programs for Afghans involved in military efforts to come to the U.S. with their families. Among them is the Special Immigrant Visa for Afghans, which was authorized in 2009. Since then, the State Department has issued 160,000 of those visas. More than half of them were granted since the U.S. closed its embassy in Kabul in 2021.

But now, five years after the U.S. left Afghanistan, hundreds of people who came on SIVs and now have green cards have received notices from the federal government warning them that the basis for their visas has been revoked or denied.

Families, many of whom were having children, learning English and enrolling in college, are now scrambling to find answers on the best way to respond to the government’s letters.

“We are trying to work, study, raise our children and build a normal life in the U.S,” said M., who asked NPR to refer to him by his first initial because he’s concerned that speaking to the media could affect his green card. “But now we are also trying to find lawyers, contact congressional offices and understand what may happen to our green cards. It is very stressful because even immigration lawyers give different opinions.”

The notices themselves are not necessarily new. The federal government began sending some out at the end of the Biden administration because they suspected some of the supporting documents for Afghans’ SIV applications were not collected through the correct processes, potentially amounting to fraud.

But advocates, lawyers and Afghan nationals who spoke with NPR said the letters appear to be sent at a higher frequency and volume than what advocates expected, and are leaving some of these U.S. allies at risk of being deported. Over the last year, those helping allies settle into the U.S. noticed an uptick in the letters and a lack of pattern as to who was receiving them. The letters have added to the dwindling pathways for Afghans to become U.S. citizens and settle into their new lives.

“What we have seen specifically with the SIV program is people who are issued these visas and come to the U.S. have built lives here, gotten jobs, their kids are in school, they’ve integrated into their communities and are living their lives,” said Jennifer Patota, deputy director of U.S. legal services at the International Refugee Assistance Project. “To get a withdrawal of approval letter years after the actual visa has been issued is something we haven’t ever seen before.”

The State Department and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services branch of the Homeland Security Department, which are sending the letters, did not respond to requests for comment.

Fraud detection efforts combine with a mass deportation strategy

The first stage in the process of applying for the SIV is to get what is called a “Chief of Mission” approval. It involves providing an employer verification letter — letters of recommendation from a supervisor and proof that shows the employer was either the U.S. government or a contractor with the U.S. government, among other things.

Such verification became more difficult after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Especially after the withdrawal of troops, many companies were shutting down, destroying all of their records, making it impossible in many cases to verify someone’s employment,” Patota said.

And then there was a concern of fraud — particularly that these immigrants, even unknowingly, had paid for letters of recommendation. In one case prosecuted by the Justice Department, a man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a years-long bribery scheme where he accepted payments from Afghan nationals in exchange for drafting, submitting and verifying fraudulent letters of recommendation for Afghan nationals who applied for SIVs.

To combat the risk of fraud, the Biden administration created a plan to verify SIV information of individuals who could have connections to employers later suspected of such schemes. Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, advocates for Afghans who worked alongside U.S. troops. He said his organization was notified by the previous administration that the notices would be going out.

The expectation, he said, was that if the SIVs were fully revoked, individuals could still apply for, and would be likely to receive, asylum. But now, his organization and others are hearing from hundreds of people and believe the scope of the revocations is much larger.

Under this Trump administration, the letters and revocations come at a time when Afghan nationals feel particularly left out of the legal immigration system. The U.S. has paused other avenues for legal immigration available to Afghans, including the refugee resettlement program, which Trump halted on the first day of his second term, and the processing of other types of visas. Those already in the country on programs like Temporary Protected Status have also been stripped of that permission to stay.

“When the Department of State initiated a re-review of Chief of Mission applications in 2024, we understood the importance of that effort,” said Jill Marie Bussey, director for legal affairs at Global Refuge. That group has been helping hundreds navigate this visa issue, as well as resettlement in the U.S. “The correspondence we saw at that time was generally tailored to the individual case and provided applicants with enough information to understand the decision and any available next steps.”

But she says more recently, “there is a decline in the quality and clarity of some Department communications, including final appeal decisions that appear to raise questions about factual accuracy and provide little explanation for the outcome.”

For now, it does not appear that Afghan nationals who received letters have had their green cards or citizenship revoked at scale. But advocates like VanDiver said the letters, alongside the crumbling of other programs like Temporary Protected Status and immigration application pauses, cause confusion and fear.

“These folks were on the frontlines of our war. They were interpreting. They were enabling our mission,” VanDiver said. “Now it feels like it’s all coming crashing down and they get no explanation of what to do.”

Families fear for their futures

Across the country, Afghan nationals who helped the U.S. and their families are grappling with stress, confusion and potential financial instability after receiving the notices. Several asked that NPR use only their first names because they fear their immigration status could be affected by speaking to the press.

One of those people is Abdul who lives in Texas and was an engineer working with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan from 2017 to 2021. He was evacuated from Kabul to Qatar by the State Department and eventually got his SIV approved and came to the U.S. with his wife and two young kids.

“Most of my friends living in the U.S. three or four years, all of them receive a letter,” he said. “All my friends are very depressed, most of them very worried about this issue. What will happen to us? What should we do?”

The letters are reaching people who had a long history of working alongside American efforts. Sasad, who lives in Washington state and is a former engineer, worked with the U.S. government in 2014 until the withdrawal. He began his visa process in 2019, before the fall of Kabul.

He lives with his wife, and they have U.S.-born children, including one with health issues that has required surgery and regular hospital visits. Sasad will soon be eligible to apply for citizenship, but after receiving his letter, he is afraid to begin the process.

“I’ve been here for more than four years, and then in the next year, I am eligible to apply for my citizenship. But when I go to the USCIS [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services], I’m stressed that they will detain me,” he said, adding that his plans to go back to school and work are less certain now that he fears losing his legal permission to stay.The Afghan nationals NPR spoke to described returning to Afghanistan as unimaginable, stressful and a death sentence. The country, which has been under the complete control of the Taliban, has also experienced deadly strikes from Pakistan, earthquakes and widespread hunger and malnutrition.

“When I came here, I thought that all my problems were solved, that now is the time to build my future right here,” Sasad said, adding that he is concerned about his ability to stay in school, have a career or even travel outside the U.S. in an emergency. “What now? I cannot focus on my long-term goals. Now all of my thoughts are ‘what if?’ situations. A lot of ‘what if?’ situations [are] giving me anxiety and depression.”

Taliban threaten former Afghan police worker after MoD leak reveals identity

August 17, 2026 Current News Articles

Haroon Siddique

A man has received threats from the Taliban after his work for the Afghan police was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak and the UK refused his application for resettlement.

Hamid* worked for the Afghan national police special unit and received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”. His details were also included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for the British government.

Hamid said he had received a number of threats from the Taliban, including a video he shared with the Guardian in which a man cradling a rifle and sitting below a Taliban flag threatens to pursue him and cites knowledge of his previous movements.

The MoD, however, has rejected his application for resettlement under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) scheme. His most recent rejection, received on 31 July, stated that Hamid had not provided evidence of “working alongside, in partnership with or closely supporting a UK government department”. It gave him 28 days to appeal.

Hamid said: “This is extremely painful because I have already submitted every document available to me proving my service. Furthermore, many of my former colleagues who served in exactly the same department and performed the same duties have already been relocated to the UK through the Arap scheme.

“Despite this evidence, my case continues to be refused. I believe my case raises serious questions about how some former Afghan partners of the UK continue to be treated despite years of loyal service.”

Hamid’s plea for help comes five years after the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 after the withdrawal of US and Nato forces. The UK government launched the Arap scheme on 1 April 2021 and closed it to new applications on 1 July last year. Pre-existing applications continue to be processed.

Under Arap, high risk of death or serious injury are only taken into account if the rest of the criteria are deemed to have been met, which they have not in Hamid’s case. “Must I wait until I am captured, tortured or killed by the Taliban before my service and the danger I face are finally recognised?” he said.

“Following the Ministry of Defence data breach, my personal information was exposed, placing me at even greater risk. Since then, my life has changed completely. I cannot safely leave my home to work. I live in constant fear of being recognised or targeted.”

After the leak, the then defence secretary, John Healey, said the dataset included people who had made speculative applications under Arap and had not worked with British forces. He said being included in the leak “doesn’t give them a right to claim access to Britain”.

“It doesn’t give them a right to claim asylum. It doesn’t make them eligible for the special [Arap] scheme that Britain put in place for those who’d worked alongside or served with our forces,” he said.

Hamid said that because he was in hiding he had no reliable income and relied on his wife, who supports the family by doing small jobs from home. “This is our family’s only source of income, and even then we struggle simply to survive,” he said.

“The emotional impact has been devastating. My wife and I have become deeply exhausted, depressed and hopeless after years of fear, uncertainty, repeated refusals and financial hardship.

“I am not asking for special treatment. I am only asking for a fair review based on the evidence I have already provided.”

An MoD spokesperson said: “Each application is considered on a case-by-case basis, assessed against the evidence provided, such as how they supported the UK mission in Afghanistan, and in line with the publicly available eligibility criteria.

“Since the Taliban takeover, the UK has resettled almost 39,000 Afghan men, women and children through Afghan resettlement schemes.”

Name has been changed

While Taliban leaders mark 5 years in power in Afghanistan, a UN official warns of a rights crisis

August 16, 2026 Current News Articles

By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN and SUZAN FRASER

August 15, 2026

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban rulers and other officials gathered at Afghanistan’s traditional Loya Jirga assembly hall on Saturday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their return to power, touting what they described as restored stability and an end to decades of conflict.

A top United Nations official, however, warned of a grave human rights crisis in Afghanistan, where girls over age 12 are barred from attending school.

The Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as the U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew following a costly two-decade war. The U.S. withdrawal led to chaos at Kabul airport as crowds of people tried to flee the country in desperation.

Soon after taking power, the Taliban administration imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later banned higher education for women, despite having pledged before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education, employment and public participation.

Women have also been banned from public spaces such as gyms and parks, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a male guardian.

Taliban hails ‘liberation’ from American forces

At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches marking what they said was Afghanistan’s liberation from American forces.

“We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquility, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government,” the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said during the ceremony.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, the deputy prime minister in charge of administrative affairs, said the Taliban rule ended an era of external interventions and internal strife in Afghanistan “over the past half-century,” restoring security.

“At least 300 Afghan youth were martyred or killed every day,” Hanafi said. “Three hundred sisters would become widows, several children would become orphans and 300 mothers would be grieving. Praise be to God, with the rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, this tragedy was removed from the Afghan nation.”

There were no women present at the ceremony.

Top Taliban official calls for more international engagement

Five years on, the Taliban government remains isolated internationally, with Russia being the only country to have recognized it formally.

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said countries that have engaged with the administration have gained from doing so and called on others that have not established contacts to reconsider their approach.

“They should move towards a policy of engagement and mutual interaction,” he said.

Celebrations held under tight security

In Kabul, Afghans took to the squares carrying Taliban flags and chanting slogans in support of the government. Convoys of vehicles wound their way through the city, causing traffic jams.

Security was tight, with a heavy Taliban security force presence and several checkpoints on a main road leading to the Loya Jirga.

Celebrations were also held in provinces across Afghanistan, where Taliban flags and posters emblazoned with slogans in praise of the Taliban’s return to power were displayed along major roads and marketplaces.

UN warns of worsening human rights crisis

In a video message, Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was undergoing a deep human rights crisis.

“While the era of war has ended, it’s questionable whether there’s real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls,” Bennett said. “My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

“The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid,” he continued, noting that the U.N. continues to document arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and persecution of minorities in Afghanistan.

Bennett warned the international community against “normalizing” the Taliban’s policies, saying it would legitimize the discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said despite “challenges and difficulties” the administration has in the past five years delivered security and infrastructure and created jobs.

2.4 million girls excluded from secondary education

Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past.”

The U.N. agency on education and culture, UNESCO, estimates that some 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education. The U.N. World Food Program said child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen due to funding shortfalls.

U.N. Women said this week that women and girls are facing the harshest restrictions in the world and that the bans are damaging Afghanistan’s future, with the lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives threatening the country’s social and economic foundations.

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Afghanistan marks 5 years under the Taliban with safer streets but pleas for jobs and education

August 16, 2026 Current News Articles

By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN and SUZAN FRASER

Associated Press

August 14, 2026

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — As Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers mark five years since sweeping back to power, some Kabul residents say they feel safer after decades of conflict and upheaval but stress the leaders should now focus on creating jobs and expanding access to schools in the country where girls above the age of 12 are banned from education.

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, after it launched an offensive as the U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew from the country after two decades of war. The withdrawal led to chaotic scenes at and around Kabul’s airport with thousands wanting to leave.

“Thank God, the past five years have passed in safety,” said Mohammad Qasim, 30, reflecting on the anniversary that comes against a backdrop of economic hardship in a conflict-stricken country. “Our wish and hope from the government is to create job opportunities for the youth.”

“We, along with the entire nation, call upon the government to create employment opportunities for the youth and to encourage them to pursue education,” he added.

Taliban curbs women’s rights despite pledge

Before the takeover, the Taliban stated that, upon assuming power, it would allow women access to education, employment and public participation, albeit in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic principles.

Soon after it seized power, the Taliban imposed an indefinite ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and, a few months later, also banned higher education for women until “further notice.”

Women also were banned from entering gyms, parks and public baths, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a “mahram,” or male guardian.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has repeatedly said the administration is working to establish conditions under which girls and women can attend classrooms or university campuses in line with Islamic Sharia laws. The restrictions, nevertheless, remain in force.

While the United Nations has acknowledged that the country has become more stable since the takeover, it has warned that lasting stability cannot be possible unless the Taliban rulers — who remain isolated internationally — lift restrictions on women and girls, protect basic rights and address terrorism concerns.

“A reduction in conflict has brought tangible benefits for many Afghans and created opportunities to focus on recovery, development and regional economic cooperation,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, said in a statement ahead of the anniversary. It added, however, that the restrictions on women and girls impede Afghanistan’s recovery and its reintegration with the international community.

UN says Afghanistan in world’s most severe women’s rights crisis

In a statement this week, the U.N.’s agency on women’s rights said Afghan women and girls are living under the world’s most severe restrictions, which not only violate their rights but also threaten the country’s social and economic future.

“Half a decade after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has systematically dismantled the rights of half its population, making it a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world,” U.N. Women said.

“In the past year alone, this exclusion of women and girls from education, employment, public life, justice systems and healthcare has only intensified, entrenching what remains the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis,” it said.

Fazila Soroush, a 39-year-old Kabul-based entrepreneur and an advocate for women’s rights, said the government had “demonstrated its worth to the people through its actions in every area.”

“We consider it essential that the officials of the Islamic Emirate who had announced the closure of schools and universities until further notice, now make a clear and practical decision regarding this matter,” she said.

In the streets of Kabul, preparations for the anniversary celebrations were underway. Vendors sold the Taliban’s white with black scripted flags while painters were busy writing slogans in praise of Islamic laws on walls, including: “The Islamic system has been achieved at the cost of the martyrs’ blood” and “Our commitment stands firm: Consolidation and implementation of Islamic Sharia.”

Taliban says it brought security and stability

Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said in the five years the administration has delivered security, stabilized the currency, improved infrastructure and formed industrial parks that have created jobs.

“Naturally, challenges and difficulties exist, yet we can highlight several accomplishments,” Farahi told The Associated Press.

Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past.

“The Emirate continues its efforts to further organize and improve services for our citizens in the fields of education and other sectors,” he stated.

The deputy minister rejected a U.N. report that documented terrorist networks in Afghanistan, saying “these are merely enemy propaganda, spread to portray the country as unstable.”

Asked to comment about its international isolation, Farahi insisted the Taliban government was engaged with some 40 countries. The Taliban government currently is only formally recognized by Russia.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has fulfilled all the requirements necessary for official recognition. It is now up to the international community and others to step forward and take the appropriate action,” he said.

UN points to broader educational crisis

The bans have left an estimated 2.4 million girls excluded from secondary education, UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said this week — a 200,000 increase from last year. The restrictions have reversed two decades of progress that Afghanistan had made in education, the agency said.

Pointing at a broader educational crisis, the agency said 53% of primary school-aged children are out of school. Schools lack basic infrastructure such as water, sanitation or heating, while natural disasters have also led to hundreds of school closures.

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program said child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support.

Speaking Friday from Kabul, the special representative for the U.N. women’s agency Sarah Ferguson urged donors not to abandon Afghan women and girls, saying the agency is getting only a quarter of what it needs. She said more than half the 74 women’s organizations surveyed in April in Afghanistan said they were close to suspending or halting work because of aid cuts.

In Kabul, Dost Mohammad Khan expressed support for the Taliban administration, saying the past five years have brought stability. He said, however, that the country needs trained professionals such as doctors and engineers, urging the authorities to keep “all sectors operational.”

“We also call upon the Islamic Emirate to permit women to attend school under the sharia dress code and we urge the public to heed the directives of the Emirate also,” said the 38-year-old.

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

When You Can’t Afford to Be Sick: From hakims and shrines to the operating table

August 16, 2026 Analytical articles

Roxanna Shapour

Afghanistan Analysts Network

16 Aug 2026 print sharing button

What happens when the medical treatment you need costs more money than you have? For many Afghans, illness comes with an impossible calculation. Paying for healthcare places a heavy burden on households, with patients and their families usually forced to cover costs out of their own pockets. For those faced with medical bills they cannot afford, this can mean delaying treatment or searching out less expensive alternatives. In this instalment of The Daily Hustle, Roxanna Shapour hears from a 40-year-old man who spent months searching for relief from debilitating back pain. He turned to traditional healers, herbal remedies and a shrine famous for healing back problems before worsening pain drove him, finally, to undergo surgery, which cost him nearly all the money he had. His story shows how the high cost of healthcare can push people to seek more affordable alternatives, including from traditional healers, and the lengths they are willing to go to when the medical treatment they need is beyond their means.

It started as a dull pain that I could manage with exercises and painkillers. Then, about a year ago, the pain began to travel down my left leg until, on some days, I could hardly sit in a chair.

I’m 40 years old and live in Kabul with my family. I am the sole breadwinner in my household, supporting my wife, our three children, my father and his new wife, as well as my two brothers and a sister-in-law. I also send money every month to relatives in our village in Paktia. I have an office job that requires long hours sitting behind a desk. I can’t really afford to get sick because the entire family depends on the money I bring home each month. A back pain that kept me from doing my job was something I could ill afford.

Finally, my wife insisted I see a doctor. He examined me and sent me for an MRI, which cost 4,000 afghanis [USD 57], on top of his 2,000 afghani [USD 29] consultation fee. The scan showed that I had a slipped disc in my lower back, which the doctor said was causing my pain. He ordered bed rest and ten days of physiotherapy, which cost 5,000 afghanis [USD 71]. But instead of getting better, the pain got worse. So I went to a second doctor, this time a specialist. He looked at the same scan and told me I needed an operation. This was not what I wanted to hear.

Until my back started hurting, I hadn’t really thought much about what an illness that could affect my work or a major medical expense could mean for me and my family. Because I have a job, my family could manage [healthcare] expenses if we tightened our belts for a month. But the surgeon had told me I needed an operation that would cost 150,000 afghanis [USD 2,150], not including the hospital stay, medicines and other visits. That was more money than I had.

I was already scared of surgery and everyone I knew seemed to have a story about someone who’d had a back operation and hadn’t got better. Before spending that much money, or going into debt to find it, I wanted to exhaust every other possibility. So I started looking for less expensive ways to cure my back.

Everyone knows a hakim

Here in Afghanistan, we have many hakims [traditional healers] and they are very popular. Everyone seems to know a hakim they swear by. One friend will tell you about someone who cured a relative and another will recommend someone who treated a neighbour.

I decided to go to a particular hakim that one of my friends said had a reputation for treating back pain. The hakim told me that the problem was a blockage in my rag-e nasa [the traditional word for sciatica] and that he would have to bleed me to drain the thick, dark blood, which was causing my pain. Several people wholeheartedly endorsed this method and told me they knew someone who had been cured of their back pain this way, so it seemed worth trying. The hakim made a cut with a razor – the kind you use for shaving – and dark blood came pouring out along with some clots. He told me to go home and rest, promising that the pain would disappear after a few days.

It didn’t.

So I went to another hakim who was also recommended by a friend. This one made his own tinctures from herbs and other ingredients that he said came from Pakistan. He gave me drops to take but they didn’t help either.

I kept thinking about the operation and the 150,000 afghanis it would cost. I wasn’t going to spend that kind of money unless I had no other options, especially when people kept telling me about other treatments that might work.

I decided to ask the hakims’ union if they could recommend someone. They told me about a rish sefid [an older, respected man] in Kot-e Sangi, who specialised in treating back pain. This sounded promising. He wasn’t just some person claiming to have cures; other hakims were vouching for him. They said he was very busy, but that they’d try to get me an appointment.

After a few days, I got a call from the union saying I could see the hakim that afternoon. He looked at my MRI and told me I didn’t need surgery. He said he could heal me without an operation. This hakim also bled me, this time along four or five veins. Then he gave me two concoctions he had made himself, from herbs he had gathered in the mountains, which he ground into the powders he gave me. He said he had even cured his own wife with them and that people from all over Afghanistan and even from Pakistan came to see him for a cure.

I had to mix one powder with water and drink it every morning. The other I had to mix with the yolks of three eggs from Afghan chickens to make a paste. The hakim stressed that the eggs had to be watani [local], not imported from Iran or Pakistan. I spread the paste on my back like a plaster and left it there for a full day, every day for ten days. But when nothing changed, I went back.

“You’ve had this pain for a long time,” he told me. “It will take time for it to leave you.”

He gave me more powder to use and this time he also gave me exercises and told me not to eat beef, beans or other foods that caused gas or bloating. What he said made sense to me, so I kept at it for another month. But after a month, the pain had eased only slightly. I had spent 8,000 afghanis [USD 115] on his visits and medicines and while it was still far less than the 150,000 afghanis for surgery, it wasn’t working.

A friend recommended that I see a hakim in Ghazni. This involved a long car journey and by then, even a brief trip was unbearable. Still, I held on to the hope that this hakim might be the one to cure me. When I arrived at his office, he told me to get some raw lamb fat, rub it onto my back, bind it there overnight and return the next day, when he would perform a ‘procedure’ that he said would heal me. He wouldn’t say exactly what he planned to do.

I had been willing to be cut with a razor twice, to take drops, drink powders and wear an egg yolk concoction on my back for days, but whatever this man was planning to do to my back felt dangerous and a step too far. This time, I didn’t go back.

By then, the costs were also mounting. I had paid for an MRI and physiotherapy, the bleedings, the drops, the powders, the eggs and the journey to Ghazni. Each expense was small compared with 150,000 afghanis, but together I had spent a little over 30,000 afghanis [USD 430] and I was still in pain. Every time I tried a new treatment, I told myself that if this one didn’t work, it would be the last.

The Shrine of the Lame

Then one of my relatives mentioned a ziarat [saints’ shrine] near our village in Paktia – the Shrine of the Lame [da godano ziarat]. This shrine is well known in our area for healing back pain.

In our area, it’s very common to go to ziarats for a cure. There are many shrines, each known for curing a specific ailment. For example, there’s a shrine where a stream flows from beneath a grave. People bathe in its water because they believe it cures skin conditions. Another shrine is said to cure toothaches by pressing a nail against the aching tooth, while women who have trouble getting pregnant go to yet another shrine.

This is something we grow up with. From the time a child is born, families may take the baby to a ziarat and ask the mullah for a tawiz [an amulet containing religious writings, worn for protection or healing] to keep the child safe from illness, harm or the evil eye. The mullahs who write tawiz have learned from their fathers, who learned from their fathers before them. The shrines themselves also have longstanding reputations and many of them have been there for generations.

So when my relative suggested the Shrine of the Lame, I went. After all, it was a shrine people specifically visited for back pain. At the shrine, the mullah wrote me a tawiz and tied it to my left arm – the same side as the pain. He also told me not to eat beef and to walk slowly. On the way back to Kabul, however, the pain became worse than it had been in weeks. I kept asking my brother to pull over so I could get out and lie beside the road until it eased, then climb back into the car, only to ask him to stop again a little further on.

We had to stop several times because I couldn’t sit in the car for long. Finally, we stopped at a meadow we knew well because my family sometimes picnicked there. It was a hot day and I was sweating from both the pain and the heat. I sat down, took off my shoes and socks and dipped my feet into the stream that ran through the meadow. I let my feet dangle in the cold water for a few minutes before we left. As we drove towards Kabul, the pain in my back started to ease and, by the time we reached home, I felt much better.

A cure, or so I thought

The next morning, I woke up without pain. I went back to the doctor and told him about the tawiz and the stream. I told him I was cured. He sent me for another MRI and said the slipped disc was still there. Whatever had happened to the pain, he told me, the underlying problem hadn’t disappeared. He insisted that I should still have the surgery.

But that day, I didn’t want to hear it. It had been months since I’d had a pain-free day. I felt as if I had been given my life back and I wasn’t going to let him ruin the moment.

For six months, I had no pain. As time passed, I became increasingly convinced that the doctor had been wrong and that I had escaped the operation after all.

Then, one day in April, I was working in the garden. I bent down to pick something up and, when I tried to straighten up, a sharp pain shot through my back. Suddenly, I could hardly stand. The pain was back, as bad as it had ever been.

I went back to the doctor. This time, he told me that if I continued to delay the operation, things would keep getting worse and that eventually they might have to put a rod in my back.

I knew then that I’d reached the end of the road. I’d tried everything I was willing to try, but the pain was back and I couldn’t go on living like this. I had to stop looking for cures and give in to the operation.

Paying for the operation

But accepting that I needed surgery was one thing; finding the money to pay for it was another.

Most of what I earn goes towards my family’s expenses and helping relatives in our village. Friends and relatives sometimes ask me for loans too, especially since the economy took a bad turn and many people lost their jobs or don’t earn enough to support their families. If you have a steady income, people come to you for help and, when you can, you help them.

Several people owed me money, but I wasn’t going to ask them to repay it because I needed an operation. I knew they had their own problems and asking someone who was struggling to repay a loan would have been shameful. I decided to borrow the money for the operation from one of my relatives who was in a good financial position. He knows I have a job and that I will eventually pay him back.

Then, out of the blue, one of the friends I’d lent money to paid me back. I hadn’t asked him for it. I hadn’t even mentioned that I needed money for an operation. He just stopped by the house one day and gave me the 200,000 afghanis [USD 2,900] that he owed me. This was enough to cover the operation itself and the other costs, including the hospital stay, medication, the post-op MRI and the doctor’s visits.

Two weeks later, I was in hospital having the surgery. Fourteen days after the operation, the surgeon removed my stitches. He told me to come back in a month and said I should have physiotherapy to help with my recovery. But I really didn’t have enough money left to pay for it. So a friend who lives abroad sent me some exercises for people recovering from back surgery. I do them by myself at home every day.

I still have pain, although it is much less than before the operation and every day I feel a little stronger. The surgeon says it will take time for me to recover. Sometimes I think about all the things I tried to avoid the operation. In the end, it cost almost everything I had and I was only able to pay for it because a friend happened to pay me back just when I needed the money. I try not to think about what would’ve happened if he hadn’t.

Edited by Jelena Bjelica

Islamic Emirate Leader Criticizes Int’l Community Over Non-Recognition

August 16, 2026 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

16 August 2026

Afghan Fund Earns Over $661M in Profits, Assets Reach $4.19 Billion

August 16, 2026 Current News Articles

Bibi Amina Hakimi

TOLOnews’ Reporter

16 August 2026

He stressed that any use of the fund’s assets would only be possible under specific legal conditions and after the necessary safeguards are in place.

The Afghan Fund has earned more than $661 million in profits since its establishment, and its total assets had reached $4.19 billion as of Asad 9 of the current solar year (July 31).

Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Afghan Fund, says the fund was established to safeguard Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves and, under specific conditions, support exchange-rate and price stability.

He added that the fund was not created to finance government expenditures, provide humanitarian assistance, or make direct payments to organizations. Rather, its primary purpose is to preserve the foreign exchange reserves and increase their value through prudent management.

Mehrabi said: “As of Asad 9 this year, the fund’s assets had reached $4.19 billion, and it has earned more than $661 million in profits since its establishment. This growth, without drawing down the principal, shows that the fund’s main objective is to preserve and increase the value of Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves, not to spend them.”

Mehrabi added that given Afghanistan’s dependence on imports and the importance of the afghani’s exchange rate against the US dollar, preserving foreign exchange reserves can help stabilize the national currency and prevent sharp price fluctuations.

He stressed that any use of the fund’s assets would only be possible under specific legal conditions and after the necessary safeguards are in place.

Mehrabi said: “This fund was not created for day-to-day expenditures. Its role is to preserve foreign exchange reserves, manage financial risks, and keep these assets available for a time when Afghanistan can once again make normal use of its central bank reserves.”

Abdul Basir Taraki, an economic analyst, said: “If this money has been frozen for five years and remains unavailable to the Islamic Emirate, there is no doubt that if this continues, the economic situation of the people will worsen day by day.”

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate is calling on the United States to fully release Afghanistan’s assets.

Abdul Latif Nazari, Professional Deputy Minister of Economy, said: “More than $8 billion in assets belonging to the people of Afghanistan have been frozen by the United States. We want these assets to be released as soon as possible and made available to the Afghan people. The continuation of this situation is contrary to international law and the principles of international relations.”

Azizurrahman Rahmani, an economic analyst, said: “The more of these assets that are returned to our country and can be used by the government in the economy, the greater the positive impact they can have on Afghanistan’s overall economy, including its GDP.”

The Afghan Fund was established in Switzerland on September 14, 2022, with an initial $3.5 billion in reserves from Afghanistan’s central bank.

724 Aid Trucks Enter Afghanistan Through Torkham Border Crossing, Pakistan Says

August 16, 2026 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

August 16, 2026

Pakistan said 724 trucks carrying humanitarian assistance have crossed into Afghanistan through the Torkham border crossing, delivering aid to families in need amid the country’s continuing humanitarian crisis.

Pakistan Today reported that Muhammad Yahya, the UN humanitarian coordinator and resident representative in Pakistan, said the trucks transported relief supplies through Torkham. He thanked the Pakistani government and others involved in keeping the humanitarian route open.

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also welcomed the movement of aid, saying Islamabad supports humanitarian efforts to deliver assistance to vulnerable families in Afghanistan.

The aid shipments come as trade and movement across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have faced repeated disruptions in recent months because of security tensions and disagreements between the two countries. Humanitarian agencies have continued seeking ways to maintain access for essential supplies despite the restrictions.

Last month, 21 of 26 trucks carrying World Food Programme assistance also entered Afghanistan through Torkham, according to the report.

The continued flow of humanitarian supplies is significant as Afghanistan faces widespread poverty, food insecurity and growing humanitarian needs. UN agencies and aid organizations have warned that funding shortages and access constraints could further affect vulnerable communities.

The border situation is also linked to wider tensions between Kabul and Islamabad. Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban authorities of allowing Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants to operate from Afghanistan territory, allegations the Taliban authorities reject. Kabul has maintained that insecurity in Pakistan is an internal matter.

Despite these political and security tensions, the movement of humanitarian convoys through Torkham provides an important channel for delivering food and other essential assistance to vulnerable Afghans.

Natural Disasters Affect 92,000 People in Afghanistan, OCHA Says

August 16, 2026 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

August 16, 2026

Natural disasters have affected more than 92,000 people across all 34 provinces of Afghanistan since the beginning of 2026, killing at least 97 people and injuring 331 others, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

OCHA said in a report on Sunday, August 16, that nearly 10,000 homes were damaged, while more than 2,100 homes were completely destroyed. Overall, nearly 13,000 families have been affected by natural disasters since the start of the year.

Floods and flash floods have been the main drivers of humanitarian needs linked to natural disasters, affecting nearly 88,000 people. The scale of the flooding has added pressure to communities already facing widespread poverty, displacement and limited access to essential services.

OCHA said that between July 20 and August 3 alone, nearly 5,000 people in 10 provinces were affected by natural disasters. The provinces included Nuristan, Kabul, Ghazni, Kapisa and Parwan.

Eastern Afghanistan has recorded the highest number of people affected, with more than 51,000 people impacted by natural disasters. Southern and western parts of the country have also suffered significant damage, according to OCHA.

The destruction has extended beyond homes. Damage to agricultural land, roads and other essential infrastructure has disrupted livelihoods and increased the vulnerability of affected families. For households that depend heavily on farming, the loss of homes and productive land can create longer-term food and income insecurity.

OCHA warned that the destruction caused by natural disasters is increasing the reliance of vulnerable families on humanitarian assistance. The impact is particularly serious in communities that have limited resources to rebuild homes, restore farmland or replace damaged household assets.

The latest figures come as Afghanistan continues to face a severe humanitarian situation, with millions of people already dependent on humanitarian assistance. Recurrent floods, droughts, earthquakes and other natural hazards are compounding existing economic and social pressures and making recovery more difficult for vulnerable communities.

Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly stressed the need for adequate funding and early preparedness to reduce the impact of natural disasters, particularly as extreme weather events continue to pose a major risk to communities across Afghanistan.

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