America's 9-11 Legacy
America's 9-11 Legacy
An Afghan Army Colonel’s Tragedy and the American Legacy in Afghanistan
(Editor’s Note: GCV has provided Ghafar anonymity when writing this article. GCV has seen photographic evidence of this assault.)
In the deep valleys of the Hindu Kush mountains, where the majestic peaks once echoed with the sounds of hope and progress, a nightmare now unfolds, leaving behind broken dreams and shattered lives. This is where an Afghan Army colonel spent over a decade of his life fighting alongside American troops to protect transport convoys and defend the values of freedom and democracy. But now, the same mountains witness a personal tragedy that serves as a testament to the brutal reality of a country abandoned to the darkness of the Taliban regime.
A month ago, in the dead of night, three Taliban gunmen forced their way into his sister’s home. They were not there for plunder or robbery but for something far worse. They bound her hands beneath one of the men’s legs, taped her mouth shut with duct tape, and proceeded to subject her to a nightmare so profound that words can barely capture its horror. They violated her repeatedly—one by one, sometimes two at a time—turning her body into a battlefield for their cruelty. The assault lasted the entire night, a brutal torment that left her physically alive but emotionally and spiritually shattered.
They didn’t just assault her; they mocked her. As they violated her body, they taunted her with the name of her brother, the colonel, who had once fought with the Americans. “Call him,” they sneered. “Call your brother and his American masters to come save you.” They weren’t just attacking her as an individual; they were attacking everything she represented—her family, her dignity, and the promises of freedom that once seemed within reach. They left her broken and beaten, a cruel reminder of the price women pay in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
She hasn’t looked into a mirror since that night. She refuses to see her own reflection, not because of the bruises and scars but because of the shame that now haunts her. This shame, however, is not hers to bear. It belongs to her attackers, to a world that allowed this horror to happen, and to the international community that turned its back on Afghanistan when it needed help the most.
Since the attack, she has stopped eating. She’s lost over 25 pounds, slipping into a fragile state of existence that doctors have warned her brother about. If she continues like this, they say, she will not need to attempt suicide again—her body will simply give out. But the colonel knows that her physical death will only be the final act of a tragedy that has already taken her soul. She has tried to end her life three times already. First, she consumed poison meant to kill mice, hoping it would take her away from the horrors of her new reality. She spent three nights in a hospital bed unconsciously until her brother called her to tell her he was working with one of his American friends to bring her to the U.S., away from society, where she would not be able to continue living. She promised not to attempt suicide again.
Then, a week later, the pain of the assault must have been heavier than her promise of not attempting suicide again because she threw herself from a three-story building, crashing to the ground with a force that broke bones but did not end her suffering. The third time, she tied heavy rocks to her body and threw herself into the river near the mountains where her brother had once fought the Taliban and saved American lives. But even the river rejected her, spitting her back out, leaving her alive to suffer yet again.
The colonel witnesses this unfolding, powerless to stop it. His sister’s inevitable death hangs over him like a dark cloud, ever-present, unshakable. He doesn’t know when it will happen, but he knows with a grim certainty that it will. In a country where women’s lives are worth so little, where survival under Taliban rule is nearly impossible, her fate seems sealed. And the colonel—once a protector, a fighter, a defender of freedom—finds himself helpless, unable to save even his own family.
Her husband abandoned her after the attack, taking their daughter with him. “A raped woman does not deserve to raise a child,” he said, his words cutting deeper than the physical wounds inflicted by her attackers. To him, she was no longer a wife or mother—she was a disgrace. In a society where honor and shame are wielded like weapons, her assault became her shame to carry and her family’s shame to bear. She knows she will never remarry. She knows that her parents, as heartbroken as they are, will eventually begin to distance themselves as they are unable to handle the weight of her despair. She knows that her future is as bleak as the present—there are no jobs for women like her, no way to rebuild her life in a country ruled by the Taliban.
Once a respected teacher during the Republic, her career has been ripped away. Under the Taliban, women are not teachers, doctors, or professionals—they are nothing. They are mere objects, subjugated by a regime that sees them as little more than property. The dreams she once had of educating young minds, of shaping the future of Afghanistan, have been snatched away, leaving her with nothing but memories of a life that now feels like it belonged to someone else.
The attack on the colonel’s sister is not an isolated incident. It is part of a larger, more insidious campaign of violence against women that has surged since the Taliban’s return to power. According to reports from the United Nations, the Taliban’s regime has systematically dismantled women’s rights, pushing Afghan women back into the shadows, where they are vulnerable to the worst kinds of abuse. Forced marriages, public executions, and the stripping away of basic human rights have become the norm. Afghan women's progress over the past two decades has been erased almost overnight.
This is not just the story of one woman’s suffering; it is the story of every Afghan woman living under Taliban rule. It is the story of a nation that was promised freedom and democracy but has instead been left to fend for itself in the face of brutality and oppression. The colonel’s sister is just one of thousands of women who are paying the price for the international community’s failure to uphold its promises to Afghanistan.
The colonel, who once fought bravely alongside U.S. forces, now questions everything. The men who brutalized his sister did so while invoking his name, mocking him for his service, mocking the very ideals he had once fought to defend. He had believed in the American mission in Afghanistan. He believed that by standing with the U.S., he was fighting for a better future for his country. But now, as he watches his sister waste away, he is left wondering: Was it all worth it? The sacrifices, the bloodshed, the years spent fighting—what was it all for if this is the outcome?
As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, it is impossible not to reflect on the events that led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent two decades of war. For American veterans, the end of the war was supposed to bring closure. But for those who fought alongside Afghan forces, there is no closure—only the bitter reality that the mission was left unfinished and that the promises made to the Afghan people were not kept.
For Afghan women, the end of the war has brought only more suffering. The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was not just a military exit; it was an abandonment of the very people America had sworn to protect. Women, who had once been at the forefront of Afghanistan’s rebuilding efforts, are now being pushed back into the dark corners of society, where they are treated as second-class citizens or, worse, as property.
The Taliban’s return to power has resulted in a humanitarian catastrophe, one that is particularly devastating for women. Reports from human rights organizations paint a grim picture of life under the Taliban. Women are being forced into marriages, denied education, and barred from most forms of employment. Public executions, floggings, and other forms of corporal punishment are being used to enforce the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia law. This is the reality for women in Afghanistan today—a reality that the international community has chosen to ignore.
But it is not too late. The U.S. and its allies still have a moral obligation to the Afghan people, particularly the women who are now living in fear for their lives. While a full-scale military intervention may not be politically feasible, other ways exist to engage with Afghanistan. The U.S. can provide asylum to at-risk women, fund NGOs that continue to operate in the country, and apply diplomatic pressure on the Taliban to respect human rights. The international community must not turn its back on Afghanistan now when the stakes are higher than ever.
The story of the colonel’s sister is a testament to the broken promises of American intervention in Afghanistan. Her suffering is a direct result of the failure of the U.S. and its allies to protect the people they once swore to defend. But it is also a call to action—a reminder that Afghanistan's fight for human rights is far from over. Afghan women are crying out for help, and the world must listen.
The U.S. must not abandon them again.
Ghafar is an Afghan living in the United States.
References:
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. (2023). Afghanistan: Women and Girls Face Systematic Oppression.
Amnesty International. (2023). Afghanistan: The Crushing Impact of Taliban’s Return on Women’s Rights.
Human Rights Watch. (2022). Afghan Women Under Taliban Rule: Education, Work, and Family Rights.
International Crisis Group. (2023). The Taliban’s War on Afghan Women.
World Bank. (2023). The Economic Impact of Gender-Based Restrictions in Afghanistan.
Women for Afghan Women. (2023). Post-Withdrawal Afghanistan: A Humanitarian Crisis.
Global Rights Monitor. (2022). Violence Against Women in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan.
U.S. Institute of Peace. (2023). Afghanistan: The Road Forward for Women’s Rights.
International Rescue Committee. (2022). How to Support Afghan Women Post-Withdrawal.
United Nations Development Programme. (2023). Rebuilding Afghanistan: The Role of Women in Peace and Development.