The Afghan writer Taqi Akhlaqi lives in Kabul, but by chance he was not in the country when the Taliban took power. A report on the terrible news, feelings of guilt and what can help now.
Every story has an ending, that’s inevitable, but I never imagined that there could be such a tragic, devastating, shocking ending for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. If the whole thing were just a narrative, I would take the time to review the whole story, from beginning to end, in hymnic admiration for the author. He is, I would say, obviously influenced by Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King. The problem is, it’s not a narrative. It’s just a surreal reality that happens right before our eyes. And no matter how hard we rub our eyes, as soon as we open them again, it’s still there.