‘I Know the Government Fell, but I Never Fell’

Updated at 2:40 p.m. ET on March 18, 2022.

Perhaps you missed the Taliban’s statement on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The Islamic Emirate calls for restraint by both parties,” Afghanistan’s new rulers announced on February 25. They emphasized “diplomatic neutrality,” while urging “dialogue” and demanding that “all sides need to desist from taking positions that could intensify violence.” But on the day the war started, with the world distracted by Putin’s invasion, Talib fighters began going house to house in Kabul in pursuit of the regime’s supposed enemies. The targets of these ongoing searches are Afghans who served in the former government or military, especially members of the Hazara and Tajik ethnic minorities. The hunt is spreading around the country, putting the lives of thousands of Afghans in danger.

In the past few days I spoke by phone and text with six young women in Afghanistan, former soldiers or police officers. All of them are running for their lives and hiding, either in Kabul or in their home provinces. Fatima, who is 26, lives with her parents, sister, and grandmother in a mainly Hazara neighborhood in the Afghan capital. (For their safety, I’ve changed most of the women’s names.) On Monday, Talibs searched houses near hers, checking the identity cards of occupants against names in a computer database seized from the old Ministry of Defense. Fatima believed that her house would be next—surely one of her neighbors would have informed on her—and she fled with her documents to a friend’s place. On Tuesday, Talibs entered Fatima’s family’s house without permission. They questioned her parents, who denied that Fatima had been a soldier; apparently the database left some uncertainty