Return of Taliban is biggest trauma for new generation of Afghans: Amrullah Saleh’s daughter

Khalida Saleh, who studied at Delhi University, tells ThePrint in exclusive interview that resistance movement will not stop because Afghans were forced to accept Taliban's return.

A woman watches as members of the Taliban delegation walk by ahead of an agreement signing between them and US officials in Doha, Qatar in February 2020 | ANI via Reuters

New Delhi: The people of Afghanistan have not chosen the Taliban, they have come back to power by force and will “never change”, said Khalida Saleh, the 25-year-old daughter of former vice-president Amrullah Saleh. She called their return the “biggest trauma” for the nation’s young generation who had hoped for a better and safer Afghanistan.

Speaking exclusively to ThePrint from an undisclosed location, Khalida said the resistance movement — started by Ahmad Massoud, son of legendary Afghan rebel fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, and her father Amrullah, who has now declared himself ‘caretaker president’ of the war-torn country — will continue as it is backed by the people of Afghanistan.

“People didn’t choose this group (the Taliban) … they have come by force, and expecting respect from such a group is like expecting a shark not to attack a person who is swimming in a shark zone,” Khalida, who studied in the University of Delhi, told ThePrint over phone. This was Khalida’s first media interaction ever.

“I do accept that the Taliban call themselves the rulers of Afghanistan, but can they rule over the hearts of those people who are willing to choose the Republic of Afghanistan over the Emirate of Afghanistan and willing to choose the three-colour flag over white flag of the Taliban? Mr Ahmad (Massoud) and his excellency Amrullah Saleh are not alone in this battle, they have those people beside them who are the representatives of the nation of Afghanistan.”

In a recent tweet, Khalida, who goes by the name ‘Frohar Saleh’ on the social media platform, said her father is “proud of his nation” and will “not give up” his fight.

Had a brief conversation with my Respected father, he is not only proud of his stand against Taliban and pakistan But also he is proud of his nation, that is not willing to give up.WE WILL NEVER BOW TO TALIBAN. Victory is ours. #StandWithAfghans #BeGoneTaliban pic.twitter.com/WzeIIaAJAw

— Frohar Saleh (@FroharSaleh) August 24, 2021

Born in 1996, when the Taliban had first come to power in Afghanistan, Khalida said her father is determined he will “not bow” to the Taliban as they will never change.

“Their brutal and violent acts are all over the internet. They declared amnesty and yet every day we witness the killing of our talented pilots, NDSF commanders and well-known faces such as high rank official members … They go door to door in search of the people who helped the US government and Afghanistan government. There are women journalists, women rights activists that are in hiding and they are scared for their lives and families,” she added.

The issue of women’s safety and rights in the country has been in focus this past fortnight, since Kabul fell to the Taliban, amid reports of women being ordered home from their government offices and burqa shops seeing an uptick in customers. Some women braved the new reality and even held protests in Kabul.

‘Never expected Kabul to fall this quickly’

Khalida said the Taliban’s return to power after being ousted by the US and NATO forces in 2001 has been the “biggest trauma” for the country’s young generation, especially for women like her who have had dreams of making it big and living a peaceful life in Afghanistan.

“I was born in April of 1996, the same year when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, and now it is the year 2021 and they are back again. We never expected Kabul would fall this quickly … not only me, but I think the whole world was shocked over its fall. The biggest trauma goes to the young generation of the country who never wanted to be part of a repeated history,” she said.

On 15 August, the Taliban had marched into the capital city, taking control of it within 24 hours as Ashraf Ghani, the president, fled the country.

Given the international glare on the developments happening, the Taliban declared amnesty for Afghan government personnel and said it would uphold women’s rights, so long as it was in line with the Sharia law.

This, according to Khalida, is not what the Afghan women of today want.

“None of the Afghan women want to live under the rule of Sharia, because Islam and Sharia is not what they are applying on women. Afghan women are not in the era of 1996. They have achieved more than what the Taliban want to fiercely impose on them,” she said.

Had the Taliban been “true followers of Islam”, Khalida said, they would not have killed people and tortured women.

“Do you think it is safe enough for such a group to have control over the capital of a country which is called the graveyard of great empires? No … not (only is) their occupation of Kabul not safe, but also their presence again is extremely dangerous for my generation who’s willing not to give up on their rights and country, and at the same time it is a big concern for the world.”

‘Afghans put themselves at risk for a US war’

On US President Joe Biden’s statements questioning why America should fight a war in a country that is not in their national interest, Khalida said he forgot that Afghanistan had given “70,000 martyrs … who were always in the front line”.

“They put their lives and families at risk to fight a war that was not in their interest. The Afghan nation has fought a war that happened after the 9/11 incident and is still fighting it. The US’s hasty withdrawal was not a shock for me, since we all know what they had done in Iraq, Vietnam and now in Afghanistan,” she added.

Biden’s remarks were in response to mounting criticism for the US’s hasty retreat in the face of the Taliban occupation. He defended his decision saying the US couldn’t fight a war  for a country that was unwilling to fight its own battles.

Quoting one of her father’s interactions to the BBC on the US’s troops withdrawal, Khalida said, “How will the US pass its dark history to their next generations?”.

Amrullah had said that the US made a mistake in “conceding too much to the Taliban”.

“Will they (the US) say that we spent $3 trillion, we trained 300,000 Afghans soldiers and yet failed to defeat a group that were trained in madrasas, were brainwashed by some mullahs and were trained in a country which itself failed to establish a stable economy, politics and were once part of India and Afghanistan?” she said, making an oblique reference to Pakistan.

‘Afghanistan will be peaceful & shine again’

Calling herself a “proud daughter”, Khalida believes the resistance movement her father and Massoud are carrying out in the Panjshir Valley will not go in vain and that it will give rise to a peaceful nation in the coming decades.

“I see a peaceful Afghanistan in the next 20 years, and it will be a country for everyone. Let’s not forget what our ancestors had done to Alexander the great, let’s not forget what Ahmad Shah Masood had done to the USSR. This is not a dark era for us. This is a chance for us to rise again, and this time, we will rise and shine stronger than ever before and it will be for us, not for any other country. It is our fight,” she said.

Note: Due to safety reasons, Khalida Saleh refused to share her photograph with ThePrint.

(Edited by Manasa Mohan)