With No Resources, Authority or Country, Afghan Ambassador Presses On
The New York Times
Adela Raz arrived in Washington just before her country fell and has struggled to keep her embassy going. A dinner with U.S. veterans was a priority.
WASHINGTON — The striped flag still flies in front of the Embassy of Afghanistan here, though the Taliban have used a white one since they reclaimed the country this summer. The embassy staff, loyal to a government that no longer exists, is skeletal and largely unpaid, and it isn’t even clear that the lights will remain on next month.
Still, Adela Raz, who began to serve as the Afghan government’s ambassador to Washington just weeks before the Taliban took over, is trying her best to use what is left of her power (unknown), resources (virtually nonexistent) and devotion to her homeland (vast) to help displaced Afghans and thank others who have supported their cause. At the top of her list: American veterans who served in Afghanistan during 20 years of war.
“I am still here,” said Ms. Raz, who continues to work from the embassy without interaction with the Taliban. Her days, she said, have been “difficult and dark, and full of disappointment and shock,” as she sits in an embassy representing a defunct government, in open opposition to the one that replaced it.
