Gabriel Lane

English Comp. 2
Mrs. Davis
21 April 2016
What Happened?
I recently had a chance to read The Kite Runner which is a novel written by author Khaled
Hosseini. In this book Hosseini tells stories about his life growing up in Afghanistan and later moving to
the United States. In the beginning of the book he writes about his luxurious childhood home, and his
fathers wealth. His portrayal of Afghanistan during that time was completely different from the mental
picture I had in my head. I grew up seeing Afghanistan on the news for things like the Taliban and Al
Qaeda. I saw pictures and video of destroyed buildings and extreme poverty. Hosseini also writes about
when he returned to Afghanistan after the Taliban had taken control and how it was almost like a different
country. All of this got me wondering what happened during that time? After watching a National
Geographic documentary and reading several articles, I found out that much happened.
During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Afghanistan was caught in
the middle. In 1979 the Soviet leaders became paranoid that the U.S. would use Afghanistan and place
medium ranged missiles to threaten the Soviets. Soviet Prime Minister Leonid Brezhnev decided that it
would not be in their best interest to lose Afghanistan. So on Christmas morning 1979, Soviet soldiers
crossed the line into the country, and the only opposition the Soviet Army had was a group of Afghan
rebels that called themselves, Mujahideen.
Within months the Soviets claimed most major cities in Afghanistan, although three years after they took
control they still couldnt destroy the rebels. The United States took notice that the Afghan people would
not give up and the CIA launched a covert operation that would secretly support the Afghan rebels. The

U.S. would arm the Mujahideen, and they would continue to fight the Soviet Union, weakening their
military and economy. The Afghans were putting up a great fight against the Soviet Army, and thousands
of Muslims from other countries were going to Afghanistan to volunteer to fight as well. Among these
volunteers was a man named Osama Bin Laden.
During the war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, over 4 million Afghans had to leave
their homes and go to Pakistan. Saudi Arabia sent money to Pakistan to set up hundreds of Islamic
schools for young Afghan refugee children to give them a free education, and these students were known
as Talibs or Taliban. At the time these schools actually trained the Taliban to fight the Russians and with
Americas blessing, they sent the Taliban back across to Afghanistan to continue fighting. During this
time the Taliban were thought of as heroes, and after being armed with an Anti-Aircraft missile launcher
called The Stinger, the tide of war began to shift in the Afghans favor. On February 15 1989, the Soviet
Union decided they had enough, made a full retreat from Afghanistan, and the war was over. The end of
one war however, will only lead to the beginning of another.
Rival Mujahideen factions worked together as long as they were fighting the soviets, but now
each hopes to take this new Afghanistan for themselves. None of the Mujahideen leaders could agree on a
government for Afghanistan and eventually turned on each other, leading into a full fledged civil war. The
leaders of the different factions then turned to crime like selling illegal drugs and weapons, and each
faction controlled their own territory where they ruled with no sympathy. They could do whatever they
wanted in their territories including stealing from and beating local residents with no repercussions. This
uncontrollable danger hit an all time high when a local Mujahideen leader in Kandahar kidnapped 2
teenage girls and took them to his camp where they were repeatedly raped. The locals seeking justice turn
to the local Mullah, a veteran of the Soviet war, Mohammed Omar (Laub). Omar got the help of 30
Islamic students, the Taliban, and they got a tank and lead an attack on the Mujahideen leaders base. The
Taliban freed the girls and hung the Mujahideen leaders body on the barrel of the tank. After this small

victory, Mohammed Omar decides to fight the Mujahideen with the Taliban and take control of
Afghanistan.
The Taliban took control of most of the south of Afghanistan with little fighting because most of
the civilians were eager for change. When they went to take the capital, Kabul however, the Taliban hit a
brick wall by the name of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Massoud was an Afghan fighter who led a group that
protected the Panjshir Valley during the Soviet war. He was also one of the Mujahideen leaders who led
Afghanistan into civil war after the Soviets retreated. When Massoud learned the Taliban were going to
try and take Kabul, he decided to hit first and attacked Mohammed Omars Taliban, forcing them to
retreat in what was the Talibans first major defeat. Mohammed Omar did not give up though. In the
spring of 1996, the Taliban struck Kabul a second, but again Massoud defended the capital and turned the
Taliban back. Massoud then went and asked for help from Osama Bin Laden, who had worked with both
sides before, to try and help end this civil war and create a joint government. When he got to Afghanistan
however, Bin Laden quickly became friends with Mohammad Omar and joined forces with the Taliban.
On September 26th 1996, the Taliban made one final push at Kabul with their now larger army. Massoud
knew he wouldnt stand a chance this time so he decided to take his army and retreat. Mohammed Omar
and the Taliban had finally completed their goal of taking control of Afghanistan.
It didnt take long for the civilians who once had high hopes for this new Afghan leadership to
change their minds. Within 24 hours the Taliban enforced a strict set of rules that had harsh punishments
if not followed. Not having the proper length of beard would get you badly beaten in public and stealing
would get your hand chopped off. The new rules also severely affect womens rights. Women were now
not allowed to go to school, work, leave their home without a male with them, show any skin in public
and they werent allowed to receive healthcare from men (Amnesty International). Petty crimes like
teaching women and adultery were now punishable by death, and the Taliban would many times execute
dozens of women publicly in Kabuls soccer stadium.

During the Talibans rule, Osama Bin Laden was building a terrorist group of his own under the
name Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda began performing operations of their own without the permission or knowledge
of Mohammed Omar and the Taliban including assassinating Ahmad Shah Massoud, and executing the
biggest terrorist attack in history, the September 11th bombing of the Twin Towers. After this attack
against the United States, the U.S. military got involved and pushed Osama Bin Laden, Mohammed Omar
and the Taliban into hiding. Afghanistan was finally free of war after 20 years of straight fighting. It
seemed like things were finally looking up for Afghanistan as they held national elections and elected a
new President. Women were now allowed to attend school and work again. In 2012 the World Bank said
there are about 2.9 million girls attending school and in 2009 a survey by the CSO found that women
were being employed at a much faster rate than men (BBC). The damage of constant warfare had
unfortunately already taken a toll on the country. Food, water and basic medical services were scarce, and
outside of Kabul, warlords popped back up taking territories and dealing weapons and drugs. By 2006,
the Taliban had returned, taking control of much of southern Afghanistan and bringing violence back into
the country.
Now in 2016, even with Bin Ladens death, Afghanistan is still in bad shape. The violence and
poverty is still apparent in Afghanistan today. BBC stated, in an article they wrote titled Afghanistan:
Before and after the Taliban, In 2010 Afghanistan had the lowest gross national income per head of
population among the developing countries in Asia, well below Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. India, Russia
and Iran all also want to gain power within Afghanistan (Micallef) and other terrorist groups like ISIS
have been formed. Even while writing this paper, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 64 people and injured
more than 300 in the capital of Kabul (CNN). So now I know that the mental image I had while reading
the book wasnt wrong, it was just incomplete. The fact that it is still going on, finding out what happened
will help me better understand whats going on today.