by Wazhmah Osman
- Afghanistan/USA -

Today Afghanistan finds itself in a state of collapse and at the center of a powerful network of global terrorism. Kabul is a city filled with anxiety, insecurity, instability, trauma, and uncertainty; lost souls at the mercy of warlords turned government officials and disillusioned by development aid that has only reached and made a small sector of society obscenely rich. Suicide bombs, corruption, military planes, armored vehicles, and convoys of tanks are a regular part of everybody else’s lives.

by Wazhmah Osman
- Afghanistan -

While reports of systemic corruption and fraud are just beginning to surface in the international press as Western governments are becoming aware of it, this is old news to local Afghans. They know that every interaction with the government - even applying for an Afghan identity card or trying to access documents at the national archives and libraries as I have - requires navigating a dense labyrinth of bureaucracy which fosters nothing but bribery and corruption.

by Wazhmah Osman
- Afghanistan/USA -

I was born in Kabul, Afghanistan during the good years, in the early seventies. Among my fondest memories is walking to and from school holding the hand of my stylish mother who was then a French teacher at Lycee Malalai where I was in the first grade. I remember a lively city where men and women, Afghans and non-Afghans, wearing a variety of ethnic and western outfits, all mingled at the busy outdoor bazaars. On Christmas Eve 1979, the world as I knew it was shattered when the Soviets invaded, throwing Afghanistan into a war that has yet to end. It was one of the saddest and darkest days in Afghan history and for my family.