As the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, the focus in Afghanistan has shifted toward how the local population is navigating life under the Taliban’s renewed control. NPR has returned to Kabul to investigate how Afghans are processing the consequences of a two-decade conflict that began as a U.S.-led invasion.
The reporting highlights the complex relationship between the United States and Afghanistan, exploring the long shadow cast by the war that started nearly a quarter-century ago. For many residents, the current political reality stands in stark contrast to the hopes and changes that emerged from the post-9/11 military intervention.
On the anniversary of the attacks, while ceremonies are taking place across the United States, this coverage aims to provide perspective from the other side of the war, detailing the resilience and adaptation of a society still reckoning with the impacts of prolonged foreign involvement.
Does anyone actually know if aid is reaching Afghan women under the current regime, or is this all just performative journalism?
Twenty years of occupation and they just handed power back? I am stunned by how abruptly everything unraveled.
It is crucial to hear these voices. The US narrative often drowns out the very people who lived through the fallout.