When the armed Taliban fighters barged into her house one early morning, Sana was terrified. She had served as a military officer in the former government’s air force, and she had a lot of documents at home which could prove her affiliation with the collapsed army.
“My hands and legs were shaking. I feared they may find my documents,” she said. “I rushed into the room soon after the Taliban left, and saw they had torn apart all of my documents and threw the pieces on the ground.”
“I cried all night. I get sad anytime I remember my documents,” Sana, 26 -year-old added. “For the Taliban, they were useless papers, but for me, they were sixteen years of my life.”
The intrusion into Sana’s house was part of a large campaign of house-to-house search by the Taliban in Kabul, and some other provinces of Afghanistan in February.
The campaign drew widespread national and international condemnation. Videos of mistreatment and harassment were published on social media.
The Taliban said their goal was to seize illegal weapons and take them off the street to prevent crimes, and that they would enter houses with the company of a local elder and female police officers. But Kabul residents doubted the Taliban’s intention. They feared the Taliban may identify during the search operation, and later kill or detain them.
Their fears were justified. The Taliban have killed or kidnapped nearly 500 Afghans for their affiliation with the former government, and foreign and domestic organizations, despite announcing a blanket amnesty, the New York Times reported last month.
Though Sana wasn’t harmed when her house was searched, she said she now fears for her and her family’s lives because the Taliban know where they live.
“Taliban now know I am a former military, and this is really worrying for me,” she said. “I am really scared. I have to change my address.”
Many feared the Taliban conducted searches to identify those who worked in the former government’s security forces and foreign agencies, and go after them later. The Taliban have rejected that.
In most cases, no female officers or local elders were present when the Taliban entered houses, Kabul residents whose houses were searched said.
Fearing the Taliban’s retribution, some families burnt and destroyed documents and photos which connected them to foreign forces and the former government.
Even though the Taliban didn’t carry out door-to-door search in western Herat province, some local residents were so scared that they burnt their documents, photos or anything that may provoke the Taliban fighters.
Negin, 23, said her brother, who lives in the United States, worked with the country’s military as an interpreter, and he left uniform, documents and photos with his mother when he left Afghanistan.
But the family was forced to burn anything the interpreter had left behind.
“My mother took care of my brother’s memories for years,” Negin said. “But with the arrival of the Taliban and the house-to-house, things got to the point where we had to burn and destroy all the memories and achievements of my brother.”
“When the war is over and a general amnesty is announced, then why is the house-to-house operation still going on?” she asked. “The only answer is that the Taliban are seeking revenge and are hostile to all those who worked with foreigners and the previous government.”
Maryam’s son, a former soldier, left Afghanistan eight years ago. He had left military uniform and some documents with his family. When the Taliban started house-to-house search in Maryam’s neighborhood, she panicked, and picked up her son’s uniform and the documents, and left her home, walking around all day outside, hoping the Taliban would search her house by the end of the day, so she can return in the evening.
“I walked around Kabul like crazy from the morning until evening,” she said. “My son’s uniform was in my hands and I was walking through the crowds.”
When Maryam arrived in the evening, she realized the Taliban’s search operation didn’t reach her house, meaning her house’s turn would come the next day.
“I was terrified all night, every time somebody was opening the door, my heart was pounding,” she said. “I did not want to burn my son’s only memory.”
The next day, Maryam left her house again, her son’s uniform and documents under her arm, and walked around outside all day. When she returned home in the evening, the Taliban had finished searching her house.
“It felt good, but I was worried that they would come again and burn my son’s uniform or take it away,” she said.
Women interviewed for this story requested to use pseudonyms to protect their security
