All of us have been cruelly plunged into miserable despair, and in the short term, the energy and power to rise up do not seem possible. The fields of transition from the existing state and reaching the desired state are not observable. In the meantime, thousands of Afghan students who have gone to different countries of the world with a lot of intellectual concerns, extra efforts, and great challenges to return home with knowledge and insight, investing their savings in the direction of prosperity and excellence of the society, are now in absolute despair. The matter of disillusionment and statelessness has brought them to a dead end. Despair and homelessness are so negatively affecting their motives and destroy the cells of a person like a termite. According to Ivan Turgenev, a well-known Russian writer, “a homeless person is zero and has nothing. No art, no truth, no life. Universalism is nonsense.”
The Taliban’s rule over the political-social sphere of Afghanistan whose ideology is neither compatible nor acceptable in today’s modern has taken away the grounds for the return of graduated students to the country and deprived the students of hope and motivation. A large part of the graduated students with high capacity, necessary skills, and sufficient literacy are now busy of doing manual labor work in the countries of the region and the world for the sack of survival. Capacities that cost millions of USD are being wasted as manual labor workers. Despite this, the situation in the countries of the region and Afghanistan’s neighbors is more challenging and critical. These students have faced many challenges and their hope and motivation have been demolished. Hope is the last bastion of life for survival and continuation and the force that moves a person forward and saves him/her from being destroyed. That is why it is important that Samuel Smiles, an English poet, and writer, believed that “hope is like the sun. The closer you get to it, the less the shadow of problems.” The sun of hope does not shine for Afghan students.
In addition to the extreme despair that has spread among Afghan students like an epidemic virus, the disorientation and lack of a clear perspective for the future have taken away their strength. Now they have turned into miserable creatures who spend all their energy and capacities just for short-term survival. Statelessness, immigration, the lack of a clear perspective for the future, and the chaotic and miserable situation that the Taliban have created inside have collectively forced the students to lose hope. The black-shaded future has so negatively prevented the necessary learning, systematic research, and rational thinking. The Taliban have not only blocked education and science inside, but they have made the situation so chaotic that no one inside or outside has the necessary motivation to think beyond the box to survive and search for a pathway to leave the country. The Taliban have made everyone sick.
Afghan students who used to benefit from the leverage of scholarships are now forced to do labor work in India, Iran, and Pakistan as part-time jobs to survive and complete their courses. People inside Afghanistan, who used to provide financial support for their children, are now on the edge of absolute poverty. Students, instead of concentrating on their studies are more worried and concerned about earning money to support their families back in Afghanistan. The Taliban have stopped the allowances for students on scholarship and have cut off the salaries of the professors who are studying. There are students from doctoral and master’s programs who are busy with labor work as part-time jobs. They are being treated as nothing more than “trash” in the countries of the region. “Trash” is the very common word being used for Afghans who used to have social status and spiritual capital.
The chaotic situation of students studying abroad is a fatal and irreparable setback to Afghanistan. They are the elites and measurable human capital that could accelerate the speed of change and development; However, the presence of the Taliban with their individualistic policies, opposition to the expert force, and enmity and interference with academic institutions has turned this capacity into a crisis and has taken away hope, motivation, and effort for change. With the unknown and illegitimate presence of the Taliban in the political power, these students often ask in their privacy why and for whom they should study and what purpose they should serve after graduating. When they get a doctorate and their homeland is under the control of wolves and they have to make lay bricks and build buildings while their families and children are starving, what pain will study and research cure? Acquiring knowledge and trying to learn first of all requires the necessary motivation and peace of mind which are taken away from the Afghanistan students. These two are the complementary forces to a successful and happy ending in academic career building; otherwise, the learning process will face a dead end.
The Taliban have narrowed the space to an extent that thousands of students, researchers, journalists, and writers are stuck in different countries. They face countless challenges and struggle to find shelter and food. It is more unfortunate that no one knows about their condition and does not have the plan to get out of the existing situation. There is no hope from the Taliban who are the main reason behind the current misfortune and chaotic situation. The group is against any ideology that is modern and in favor of today’s modern society. The group has particular enmity with the young, educated, and skilled generation of the country.
This is not the end and should not be the end. The institution should collectively and meaningfully take practical action to help the Afghan student in getting them back on track. The capacities that are built by millions of dollars in investment should not be wasted and forgotten. Afghan students should not be forgotten and the world should know that students and the young generation of Afghans are the only populations with whom they will interact in the future and interaction with the modern skilled and educated population is rather easier than the Taliban and Taliban oriented generation. The world should collectively work to answering the very misfortune question of Afghanistan students “Why Should We Study?”
Aasoo-Contributor and Opinion Writer, Hasht-e Subh Daily