The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan five years ago has left a nation in despair, with women and girls bearing the brunt of the fundamentalist group's rule. The initial wave of fear and anxiety has settled into a suffocating despair, with no signs of healing. High schools and universities are now exclusively for young men, while women are confined to their homes, their only link to freedom being mobile phones. The arts and culture have largely vanished, and the country is now facing a humanitarian crisis, with funding cuts for women-led organizations and a lack of access to education for girls. The Taliban's demand for celebration is ironic, as Afghans are mourning the loss of their homeland and the progress made in the past two decades. The catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan is a bitter fruit of a US failure, and the Afghan diaspora is left to suffer, awaiting a grim future under the weight of foreign hubris and broken promises.
