
Some, who have served the allied cause, will be evacuated for their own safety, along with most foreign nationals who are scrambling to quit the country before the Taliban regime is fully installed. Many will probably try to flee even beyond Kabul if it falls, across the border into Pakistan. There is a concern that female MPs, women's rights activists and professional women (doctors, teachers, lawyers, artists) will be targeted, possibly murdered, that schooling and university education for girls will be curtailed, that the progressive reforms of two decades will be swiftly reversed, for the Taliban despise educated girls and emancipated women.
I can anticipate hand-wringing from our leaders in the West, expressions of surprise that it has all ended like this, calls on the soon-to-be new Taliban government to respect the rights of women - and it will all be to no avail. I think there will be widespread horror and moral indignation from humanitarian organisations and from ordinary people, and a deep sadness and shock that Afghanistan has been abandoned in this way. But I bet the abiding concern of the governments in London and Washington will not be for the people of Afghanistan so much as a worry that the fundamentalist regime, when re-established in Kabul, will once again be a safe haven and training ground for groups such as Al Qaeda in their holy war against the West.

I find it difficult to craft good poetry to short order, so this latest is a work-in-progress from a heavy heart (with a few nuanced changes thanks to input from my fellow poets in Blackpool & Fylde Stanza group). I nearly called it A Second Slavery Beckons and may not be complete....but then nor is the momentous event it seeks to recognise, as the Taliban poise to turn the clock back on twenty years of fragile but joyous emancipation.
AfghanistanAfghanistan, the sun sets on you.Dread spreads along your streetsand fear fills many female hearts,for a second slavery beckons.
Husbands and fathers take care.The well-trodden path to water*is hard on wives and daughters,for a second slavery beckons.
Homes stand deserted, hope fades,thousands seek to flee their fate.Lamp-posts wait on human fruit,for a second slavery beckons.
Hide your baubles and your books,your certificates and song-sheets,dissemble maidens, if you can,for a second slavery beckons.
The flowering of your womanhoodwill wither soon, narcotic poppiesprove the only acceptable bloom,for a second slavery beckons.
Can there be too high a price to payfor trying to make a better world? Tonight in Kabul, the reckoning,for a second slavery beckons.
*The literal meaning of Sharia is: the clear, well-trodden path to water.
As a musical bonus (before women are prohibited from singing in public in Afghanistan), here's Aryana Sayeed performing: Za Spina Jeli Yama (Just click on the title of the song to activate the link.)
Thanks for reading. Never undervalue our freedoms, S ;-) Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook