**AUTHOR’S NOTE**

Afghanistan is a small coun­try that serves as a bridge between Cen­tral Asia and South Asia, hav­ing faced inva­sions from his­tor­i­cal pow­ers like Alexan­der the Great, the Mon­gol Empire, the British, and the Sovi­et Union. The Sovi­et inva­sion began in 1979, ignit­ing a decade of severe bru­tal­i­ty as Amer­i­can-backed fight­ers opposed the Sovi­et-sup­port­ed gov­ern­ment. Despite much mil­i­tary sup­port from the West, these resis­tance groups showed lit­tle inter­est in cham­pi­oning basic human rights for the Afghan pop­u­la­tion. The con­flict was marked by fierce and pro­longed fight­ing.

After the Sovi­ets with­drew in 1989, Afghanistan plunged into civ­il war, with var­i­ous armed fac­tions vying for con­trol. This tur­moil made mil­lions of Afghans refugees, forc­ing them into over­crowd­ed and impov­er­ished camps in neigh­bor­ing coun­tries like Pak­istan, Iran, and Rus­sia. The war left count­less casualties—killed, maimed, or orphaned—and many Afghans were dri­ven to psy­cho­log­i­cal despair due to grief and ter­ror.

In Sep­tem­ber 1996, the Tal­iban mili­tia, pre­vi­ous­ly sup­port­ed by the US and Pak­istan, seized con­trol of Kab­ul. They imple­ment­ed harsh laws against girls and women, shut­ting down girls’ schools, bar­ring women from the work­force, and enforc­ing strict dress codes. Soci­etal con­trols were imposed, includ­ing the destruc­tion of books, tele­vi­sions, and pro­hi­bi­tions on music.

The sit­u­a­tion esca­lat­ed in the fall of 2001 when al-Qae­da, which trained in Afghanistan, attacked the Pen­ta­gon and World Trade Cen­ter. In retal­i­a­tion, the Unit­ed States led a coali­tion to bomb Afghanistan, dis­plac­ing the Tal­iban and estab­lish­ing a new gov­ern­ment and con­sti­tu­tion, which rein­stat­ed schools for both boys and girls and allowed women to return to work.

Despite these changes, Afghanistan remains trou­bled by ongo­ing vio­lence. The Tal­iban has resumed fight­ing a suc­cess­ful guer­ril­la war, and the coun­try has become infa­mous for opi­um pro­duc­tion. Cor­rup­tion with­in the gov­ern­ment per­sists, and Afghans are increas­ing­ly uneasy with the con­tin­ued pres­ence of for­eign forces. Women’s rights strug­gles con­tin­ue as threats against girls’ schools and women activists increase.

Under­stand­ing this com­plex and beau­ti­ful yet trag­ic coun­try and its resilient peo­ple is essen­tial to learn­ing from past mis­takes made by out­siders that have con­tributed to its ongo­ing strife.