By Kathy Gannon

October 11, 2024

ISLAMABAD — The bipartisan effort by Canadian politicians to bring women Afghan politicians to Canada is a heartwarming story. They are among the 69 women who once served in Afghanistan’s Parliament. One of the former politicians on the list of those hoping to escape to Canada, Mursal Nabizada, was murdered in January 2023. Her security guard was arrested by the Taliban for her murder as well as that of another of her security detail in February 2023. The motive for her murder was not known. But six have made it out safely.

It is a story that tells of the ability of Canadian politicians from across the political spectrum to come together for a common goal. Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois joined forces to bring the muscle that won the fight.

It also speaks to the hope that these Afghan women politicians must now feel as they embark on a new life in Canada, while most certainly sad to leave their homeland. Their arrival in Canada was the end of a months-long journey that began when they fled Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

For months they lived in neighboring Pakistan, where upwards of 2 million other Afghans live, all refugees from more than four decades of relentless war. They climbed a mountain of red tape before boarding their flight to Canada. Their identities are being withheld because they fear for family members still in Afghanistan.

This story is one of triumph for the Afghan and Canadian politicians, and for the human rights advocates who were dogged in their determination to get the women to Canada.

But it is also a story of failure; the failure of a 20-year intervention in Afghanistan characterized by a muddled post-9/11 mission strategythat changed and morphed as the years went by never really crystallizing  into a workable strategy, and of unsavory Afghan allies, who were chosen at the outset of the Taliban’s ouster despite their reputation for runaway corruption, internecine fighting and war crimes.

It is also a story of good intentions gone bad, proving the truth of the 12^th century proverb about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

The international community encouraged Afghans to embrace democracy even as it guaranteed its failure by dumping suitcases full of dollars to finance corrupt warlords who were doing America’s bidding, increasing their power, influence and control over successive governments, none of which could be considered truly democratic.

But for the women who entered elected politics in Afghanistan during those years, they did so because the risks to themselves and their families were believed to be offset by the protection of US and international government and NGO presence. Many also did so in defiance of conservative family members.

The international community encouraged Afghans to embrace democracy even as it guaranteed its failure by dumping suitcases full of dollars to finance corrupt warlords

Yet successive Afghan elections were marred by widespread allegations of corruption. Following the 2014 elections, the United States compelled Afghan leaders, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani to accept a power-sharing deal, further undercutting the voices of Afghans and amplifying the voices of the corrupt.

Says America’s own Special Inspector General for Reconstruction, tasked with following the billions of dollars spent in Afghanistan:

“Many warlords were brought into government, where they continued their abuses, maintained private militias, and had links to narcotics, smuggling, and criminal networks. With a weak central government and no fear of law enforcement, the warlords gained impunity, and their patronage networks became more entrenched. U.S. partnerships with such individuals gave the Afghan population the impression the United States tolerated corruption and other abuses, seriously undercutting U.S. credibility.”

Those observations were made in 2016, and it only got worse.

The international community sold Afghans a bill of goods on which it never delivered. It got distracted by Iraq and dragged into a civil war that it and its Afghan allies lost, returning Afghanistan to the Taliban.

While the story of the Afghan Parliamentarians now in Canada is heartwarming, it should also be a stark reminder of the broken promises made to the 40 million Afghans still in Afghanistan as well as the 2 million living as refugees in Pakistan and nearly 3 million living in Iran.

When U.S. President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of the last troops still in Afghanistan in April 2021, he promised Afghans it did not mean they were abandoning Afghans.

But this story reminds us that, apart from those who have been evacuated from Afghanistan, the 40 million Afghans still living in their extraordinarily beautiful country have indeed been abandoned.

Afghans do not want to be removed from their country and the world does not want additional migration. The answer is not evacuations.

 Yet the current strategy of isolating the Taliban has only further isolated Afghans and resulted in increasingly repressive edicts against Afghan women and marginalized those within the defacto Taliban government who in the early days of their takeover promised schools would re-opened.  Some tried.

After three years of isolation their voices are being silenced.

They deserve better.

Kathy Gannon covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for The Associated Press for 34 years. She authored the book I is for Infidel. You can read her regular posts on Substack.