After fleeing Taliban rule, many Afghans struggle to resettle, worry for those back home

Two years after the Taliban captured his hometown of Kabul, Ahmad Muslim Khuram still remembers the scenes of chaos in the Afghan capital.

The former CEO of Bakhtar Afghan Airlines says he was on his way to a meeting on Aug. 15, 2021, when he noticed people frantically running through the streets. Soon after, a group of armed men burst into his office.

"They said, 'Hand over everything to us,'" said Khuram, who spent the next two weeks trying to escape Afghanistan with his family as bedlam gripped Kabul's airport.

Shinkai Karokhail, a human rights activist and former Afghan ambassador to Canada, says she was shocked by the speed with which the Taliban took over the capital, leaving scores of terrified residents desperately trying to get on any flight out of the city.

"Only a few of us were able to do that," said Karokhail, who was able to fly to Bahrain five days after the takeover.

Many watched in horror as Afghans, desperate to escape, grabbed hold of planes as they took off. Some fell to their deaths.

Now permanent residents, Khuram and Karokhail say while they eventually managed to make it to Canada with their families and are grateful to have settled in Mississauga, they have struggled with the challenges of starting fresh in a new country while leaving behind family and worry about those still in the country under the Taliban's thumb. 

Geoffrey Hayes, a University of Waterloo history professor, says while the Taliban made several assurances to not completely roll back women's rights in the country, most of those promises were ultimately abandoned. 

"Those provisions are pretty well cut off," said Hayes, who adds many of the people targeted by the Taliban as it took over were unable to escape.

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Canada has accepted 36,000 Afghans into the country over the last two years, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, a few thousand short of the 40,000 it pledged to resettle in 2021.

Wendy Long, the founder of Afghan Canadian Interpreters, a group dedicated to helping to rescue and resettle Afghan translators who helped Canadian Forces overseas, says although it has taken over two years to close in on that target, Canada should remain committed to the objective and even expand the program.

"It gives hope to those remaining in Afghanistan that they are not forgotten," said Long.

Karokhail says she hasn't started a new job since coming to Canada, but has continued to advocate for international attention to the issues facing Afghanistan, including the Taliban's systematic elimination of women from social, political and economic life in the country.