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The Trump administration says Afghanistan's conditions have improved in recent years to the point where sending Afghan nationals back does not pose a threat to their safety. That's how members of the administration explain, in part, the end of temporary protected status for tens of thousands of Afghans who fled to the U.S. when the Taliban returned to power four years ago this week. But as NPR's Arezou Rezvani and producer Khwaga Ghani report, a person's safety in Afghanistan depends on who they are.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOES BEING BUFFED)
AREZOU REZVANI, BYLINE: Thirty-year-old Shokoor (ph) wasn't always in the business of repairing shoes, but it's the only work this father of six can find these days.
SHOKOOR: (Through interpreter) Life is so hard. There are days where I earn nothing at all.
REZVANI: Shokoor says he had a good life before the Taliban returned to power. He enlisted in the military at 18. He says he was trained by the Americans. He often carried out night raids in search of Taliban insurgents, a controversial and sometimes deadly tactic that turned many Afghans against the U.S.-backed government and anyone who helped them. But on August 15, 2021, it all came to an end. That day, as Taliban fighters advanced towards the capital, the checkpoint Shokoor was stationed at on the front line came under attack.
SHOKOOR: (Through interpreter) People just surrendered all of these checkpoints, but I didn't want to leave mine. And then a rocket hit, and then another, and I thought we were going to die.
REZVANI: Shokoor lost both his legs in that attack. He gets around now with the help of prosthetics. Because he worked with the Americans, the Taliban, he says, still ask around for him, which is why we're only using Shokoor's first name for his safety. He's moved his family multiple times. They're now living in something of a shack in a remote part of Kabul trying to avoid the Taliban.
SHOKOOR: (Through interpreter) I've lived here for six months, and they've come and asked for me twice. I just don't have the energy to keep hiding anymore.
REZVANI: On top of everything, Shokoor says, he'll never get over how he feels the Americans abandoned him.
SHOKOOR: (Through interpreter) I'm disappointed in them. I just still feel so betrayed. People who weren't disabled, they had a chance to catch a flight and leave when the evacuation happened. But people like me were left behind.
REZVANI: When the Taliban first returned to power, they claimed they'd govern differently than in the past. They announced a general amnesty for members of the old republic. Richard Bennett, the U.N.'s special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, says they haven't followed through.
RICHARD BENNETT: There are numerous reports, including from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, which finds that those groups can be hunted down, detained arbitrarily without a trial, ill-treated, including being tortured. And some of them are killed.
REZVANI: NPR reached out to the Taliban government for comment. They didn't respond. In a statement to NPR, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said, quote, "the Trump administration remains committed to protecting those who supported our mission in Afghanistan while ensuring rigorous security standards." Bennett, who has not been allowed back into Afghanistan since 2023 because of his critical human rights assessments, says the Taliban's explanation for cases of mistreatment usually go something like this.
BENNETT: They say, no, there is an amnesty, but, you know, maybe some of our soldiers might take it in their own hands, but it's not our policy.
REZVANI: Some of those soldiers did take the life of 30-year-old Fariba's (ph) husband into their own hands. Like Shokoor, we're only using her first name for her safety. Fariba's husband was the head of security for one of the ministries under the U.S.-backed government. For several months, he carried on working under the Taliban. She says they forced him to return. Then one evening, he didn't come home.
FARIBA: (Through interpreter) We started searching for him - his mother, me, his sister, all of us. We would go and look for him at checkpoints, the prison. We looked for almost a week, and then we got a call from his number. They were laughing on the other end and said, come. We killed him. Come and take his dirty body.
REZVANI: Fariba now spends all her days at home with her four young children, and that's not by choice. The Taliban no longer allow women to go out without a male chaperone. She wants her kids to get an education while they still can, but she's stopped sending them to school. Her boys were being followed, she says, her daughter bullied.
FARIBA: (Through interpreter) A lot of the Taliban's children were studying in the same schools. One girl in my daughter's class would tell her every day, you know, I'm going to send my uncle to your house, and he's going to torture you. He's going to put his feet on your neck. It was devastating for her.
REZVANI: She's teaching them what she can at home - the little English she knows...
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: A, B, C, D, E.
REZVANI: ...Persian poems.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: (Non-English language spoken).
REZVANI: She's also slowly selling off their household items to get by. She says rank-and-file Taliban have taken over her house. When she went to the police to complain and they learned her husband worked for the old republic, they taunted her.
FARIBA: (Through interpreter) They started laughing, saying, oh, you've lived here long enough.
REZVANI: In the four years since the Taliban's return, Fariba says she's lost a lot - her husband, her freedom and her dignity.
Arezou Rezvani, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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