Afghan princess confronts conflicted cultures
Amanda Lehmert
Issue date: 10/18/01 Section: News
In 1978, the communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, supported by Russia, killed President Mohammad Daoud, Seraj’s cousin, and tortured countless citizens.
Seraj’s family was next.
by the communists,” Alia says, calmly telling the story of her family’s escape. One night her parents wrapped Alia’s two sisters – then just babies – in blankets and they took separate routes to Pakistan. Her father took a bus. “My dad said he disguised himself with his long beard and baggy clothes and sat in the middle of a group of hippies at the back of the bus who were smoking hash. They played their guitars and drums around him and covered him until he got into Pakistan.”
Alia’s mother crossed the border with some help from the American embassy. Alia says although her mother was allowed to leave the country, she had to hide her two small daughters because the communists told her family the girls had no right as Afghans to leave the country.
Since the late 1970s, Afghanistan has been embroiled in constant civil war. Only in the 1990s did the Taliban, and its form of Islamic fundamentalism, emerge as a driving force in the country. Alia says Afghanistan isn’t really Afghanistan anymore.
Lehmert / page 3 of 6
“(The Taliban) came into Afghanistan from Pakistan under the pretenses that they were going to bring the Afghans back to their government, back to their religion, back to (exiled king) Zahir Shah, back to my family,” Alia says. “The Taliban got the Afghan people to put down their guns because they were so tired of fighting. And as soon as they
put down their guns, the best way I can describe it is that the Taliban picked up those guns and pointed them right back at the people.”
According to Alia, the United States, which was supported the country when the Russians occupied it, soon stopped caring about the plight of the Afghan people.
Seraj’s family was next.
by the communists,” Alia says, calmly telling the story of her family’s escape. One night her parents wrapped Alia’s two sisters – then just babies – in blankets and they took separate routes to Pakistan. Her father took a bus. “My dad said he disguised himself with his long beard and baggy clothes and sat in the middle of a group of hippies at the back of the bus who were smoking hash. They played their guitars and drums around him and covered him until he got into Pakistan.”
Alia’s mother crossed the border with some help from the American embassy. Alia says although her mother was allowed to leave the country, she had to hide her two small daughters because the communists told her family the girls had no right as Afghans to leave the country.
Since the late 1970s, Afghanistan has been embroiled in constant civil war. Only in the 1990s did the Taliban, and its form of Islamic fundamentalism, emerge as a driving force in the country. Alia says Afghanistan isn’t really Afghanistan anymore.
Lehmert / page 3 of 6
“(The Taliban) came into Afghanistan from Pakistan under the pretenses that they were going to bring the Afghans back to their government, back to their religion, back to (exiled king) Zahir Shah, back to my family,” Alia says. “The Taliban got the Afghan people to put down their guns because they were so tired of fighting. And as soon as they
put down their guns, the best way I can describe it is that the Taliban picked up those guns and pointed them right back at the people.”
According to Alia, the United States, which was supported the country when the Russians occupied it, soon stopped caring about the plight of the Afghan people.