The only boom business now in Afghanistan is burkha sales

In Herat, the country’s third largest city, which fell to the Taliban on Thursday, girls who showed up at their universities were turned away, Khurram says. “The education system is collapsing." There is, however, one business that is booming. In the provinces, burkha shops are reopening and the thick, blue garments that cover a woman’s body from head to toe, are becoming an expensive, must-have item. Though not for everyone. “I am seeing a lot of women who did not experience the previous Taliban period who are saying, ‘We will not adopt this oppressive dress’," says Khurram, who was the Afghan Youth Representative to the United Nations in 2019. “I do not know what will happen to the younger generation.... They were coding. They were so brilliant. Now they are all sitting at home wondering what will happen. This generation formed the modern Afghanistan."

There’s a meeting of Taliban and Afghan government leaders in Doha on Monday, where negotiations are expected to take place for a peaceful transfer of power. All Afghans can do is wait and worry. There were reports Sunday of dozens of helicopter flights over Kabul as the US and other nations rushed to evacuate their citizens, leaving Afghans to their fate.

The Taliban hold most of the country, from the provinces to the regional capitals, the border crossings with most of the six neighbouring countries and now Kabul, well before the full withdrawal of US troops on 31 August. The Taliban have instructed their fighters to stay at the gates of Kabul until talks have concluded, although footage of the group’s leaders in the presidential palace late Sunday was symbolic of just how far citizens’ democratic dreams have fallen.

That is the stark reality for Afghans, including the thousands of displaced people who’ve poured into the capital to escape the group’s draconian rule, as reports filter in of ugly reprisal killings, women ordered from their workplaces and into their homes, men told to grow beards and girls forbidden from attending school. In the tried and true playbook of militia all over the world, young men are pressured to join their ranks.

Many Afghans are still speaking out, with some, like Muska Dastageer, a lecturer at the Kabul-based American University of Afghanistan, directly engaging with Taliban spokesmen on Twitter. “Afghans are done being victims. Afghan women will not hide. We will not be afraid," Dastageer tweeted to Suhail Shaheen, a member of the group’s negotiating committee. “The glare of the whole world is on Afghanistan, on Kabul, on Taliban and what they do."

It’s hard to avoid the word betrayal. From the moment former President Donald Trump approved the deal between the US and the Taliban—signed on 29 February last year—that excluded the elected Afghan government, the writing was on the wall. It called for an initial drawdown of US troops and the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The Taliban pledged to cut ties with all terrorists, prevent Afghan territories from becoming militant havens and to engage in peace talks that were meant to lead to a ceasefire and an end to decades of war.

They got the troop withdrawal, and many of those prisoners who were released have since taken up arms. What’s missing? Any sign the Taliban will fulfill their end of the bargain. That the US allowed this to happen will dent America’s diplomatic stature for years to come. President Ashraf Ghani, whose government—mired in allegations of corruption and incompetence—failed to unite warlords behind the Afghan National Army, reportedly left the country Sunday with a coterie of aides.

People are in shock, Khurram says. There are no tears—no one understands what to feel any more. Traffic choked the capital as panicked residents raced to reach home. Electricity has been out since Sunday, so it’s only a few can watch TV news and monitor Twitter for any signs of what the Taliban might do next. “People want to leave but the borders are closed."

Ruth Pollard is team leader:economics & government at Bloomberg,