“People have poured their heart and their soul into post-2001 Afghanistan. Now, in Afghanistan, we have a generation of educated girls who are — from yesterday, onward — not able to go to school? What happens to them? What happens to these many millions of girls who can’t turn up to their school, who can’t articulate or can’t materialize the dream that they have? What happens to them?”
In this podcast, Farkhondeh Akbari and Andrew Watkins join New Lines Magazine’s Anthony Elghossain for a conversation on Afghanistan. They share their sentiments about the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, assessments on decades of American intervention and recent withdrawal, and reflect on the past, present and future of the Afghan state and society.
Farkhondeh Akbari is an Afghan scholar and advocate who focuses her research on the challenges of negotiations with nonstate armed actors — including the Taliban in Afghanistan. Andrew Watkins is an American analyst who has worked on Afghanistan and studied the Taliban for 15 years.