My big fat Taliban birthday

A day that once brought cake and well-wishes is now a grim reminder of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the miserable fate that has befallen its people

Afghan breakdancer Manizha Talash of Olympic Refugee Team

Birthdays are meant to be joyous, a time to celebrate with friends and family. For me, though, my birthday has become something far more somber. August 15th, a day that once brought cake and well-wishes on Facebook, now serves as a grim reminder of one of the darkest days in recent history: the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

As the Taliban marks its third anniversary in power with a military parade at Bagram Air Base which conveniently omitted any acknowledgment of the country's ongoing struggles, I find myself reflecting on the Afghanistan I once knew—a place of breathtaking beauty, rich culture, and warm, hospitable people.

It feels like just yesterday that the world watched in stunned silence as desperate Afghans clung to departing aircraft at Kabul airport, those haunting images seared into our collective memory. Three years have passed since that chaotic withdrawal, and the situation in Afghanistan has only grown more dire. Human rights have been trampled, the economy is in shambles, and the threat of terrorism once again looms large. .

Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan has morphed into a dystopian nightmare, especially for women and girls, who the United Nations says have been reduced to second-class citizens in their own country. Girls above grade six are barred from school, women are banned from most jobs, and public spaces are off-limits to half the population. It’s a tragedy beyond words, a gender apartheid that the world shamefully watches in silence. Afghan women have been erased from public life, their autonomy brutally curtailed by a regime intent on dragging the country back to the Dark Ages.

The Taliban’s claim to govern in accordance with Islamic law is a flimsy excuse for their misogynistic policies. You don’t need to be an imam to know there’s nothing Islamic about denying women the right to an education, to work, or even to leave their homes unescorted.

Take, for example, Manizha Talash, the Afghan breakdancer disqualified from the Olympics for her “Free Afghan Women” cape. Her story, like so many others, has been forgotten by a world that once promised to stand by Afghan women.

If the human rights situation in Afghanistan is catastrophic, the economy is a full-blown disaster. Unemployment is rampant, poverty is widespread, and essential services are collapsing under the weight of mismanagement and corruption. The Taliban, in their zeal to impose their draconian interpretation of Islamic law, have effectively crippled the country’s economy. Women, once significant contributors to the workforce, have been removed from the equation entirely, banned from most jobs and public spaces. This isn’t just a moral failure—it’s economic suicide.

The country now relies almost entirely on foreign aid to survive, with the Taliban incapable of fostering any sustainable economic growth. Their governance—marked by banned interest transactions, a crippled central bank, and severed international banking ties—has pushed the country to the brink of collapse. The economic despair is so pervasive that even the Taliban’s attempts to showcase military might with parades of abandoned U.S. hardware cannot obscure the reality on the ground: a nation struggling to survive, its people on the edge of starvation.

And yet, the Taliban remain focused on consolidating power rather than addressing the humanitarian disaster unfolding under their rule. The international community continues to send aid, but much of it is siphoned off or mismanaged, leaving millions of Afghans—especially women and girls—in desperate need.

As if human rights abuses and economic collapse weren’t enough, Afghanistan once again risks becoming a breeding ground for terrorism. The Taliban, who once fought against U.S. forces, now face an insurgency of their own. Groups like ISIS-K, which see the Taliban as ideological enemies, are gaining strength, carrying out deadly attacks in Afghanistan and plotting terror beyond its borders.

Despite Taliban claims to the contrary, the threat posed by these groups is very real. In recent months, ISIS-K has carried out bombings in Kabul and even launched attacks in places as far-flung as Moscow. Afghanistan is once again a breeding ground for extremism, with the potential to destabilize the region and beyond. It’s an ironic twist of fate: the Taliban, who once hid in caves to avoid U.S. drones, now have to worry about those same caves being used by their enemies.

As the U.S. retreated from Afghanistan, China and Russia swooped in to consolidate their positions. Human rights? The treatment of women? Not their concern. What matters to them are strategic interests and potential economic gain. In the three years since the Taliban took control, these two powers have significantly increased their influence in the region, engaging in high-level meetings with Taliban officials and even attending United Nations-sponsored talks. This shift in power dynamics isn’t just a loss for U.S. foreign policy—it’s a loss for the Afghan people, who are left with fewer allies willing to stand up for their rights.

Perhaps the most egregious failure of the U.S. in Afghanistan is its abandonment of those who risked everything to help American forces. Tens of thousands of Afghans, promised safety through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, remain in limbo, caught in a bureaucratic nightmare that shows no signs of ending. The Afghan Adjustment Act, which would provide these individuals with a path to permanent residency, has been stalled in Congress for years, despite widespread public support. Its passage would ensure that those who stood by America are not left to suffer the consequences of its withdrawal.

Beyond the immediate needs of Afghan allies, the U.S. must take a principled stance in its dealings with the Taliban. This means continuing to provide humanitarian aid to the Afghan people while refusing to normalize relations with a regime that enforces gender apartheid and tramples on basic human rights. We can’t afford to turn a blind eye to the suffering of millions of Afghans, particularly women and girls, whose lives have been upended by Taliban rule.

It’s high time for the U.S. to recognize that its obligations to Afghanistan didn’t end with the withdrawal of troops. The moral injury inflicted by abandoning a generation of Afghans can only be healed through action—by standing with those who still yearn for freedom, by providing refuge to those who need it, and by holding the Taliban accountable for their atrocities.

As I reflect on this dark anniversary, I’m also reminded of my time in Afghanistan. I remember a day in 2010, visiting a USAID program for women in Jalalabad, where I took the photo below. The women, mostly war widows or young girls whose fathers died in war, were learning to become contractors, electricians, and painters. These women were given a chance to build their own futures, to support their families, and perhaps even to own their own businesses. It was a remarkable program, one that brought hope to a place where hope was often in short supply.

This image above of one of these young women from that day is one of my all-time favorites. You can see her face beaming with joy, even through her paint-splattered burka. It hangs in my house as a constant reminder of the resilience of Afghan women.

As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Let these photos remind us of what is at stake. The future of Afghanistan may be bleak, but it is not beyond saving.