Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a law student in Kabul offers his perspective on the most recent wave of financial instability as Taliban authorities close the currency market to stop a crash in the value of the Afghan currency. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding the name and institutional affiliation of our correspondent. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.
From complications of politics to betrayals and a war that resulted in seizure of a government by a terroristic group… A week went by and people were in shock, then a month and some thought of fighting for their rights and liberty, then another month and another. Finally, rights, liberty and patriotism have been traded for “where would the next meal will come from?”
Today people felt what truly had been waiting for them. On Sunday a single USD was traded against 103 Afghanis and this went on to 108-9 by closing of the currency markets. Today, Monday, the value of Afghanistan’s currency plummeted unprecedentedly in 20 years and 1 USD was traded with 110 Afghanis went on to rise beyond that. The terrorists very ingeniously decided to close Saray-e-Shahzada in Kabul and Khurasaan Market in Herat, the two main currency exchange markets in the country, which resulted in a complete panic. Off-book trades and a shortage of cash resulted in USD spiking to 120 and 128—a complete crash of the economy.
On the other hand, there are rumors were that the Pakistanis are printing Afghan money for the Taliban. The former vice president had flagged this but his voice alone did not carry much weight into the international community. But now the newly printed money is circulated in the market and a child could recognize it; this stupid strategy has been feeding the flames of inflation that daily swallows up the most vulnerable of the social hierarchy. The Child Health Hospital in Kabul is piled up with starving children, many of whom will draw their last breath as I write these words. The price of food staples such us eggs, bread flour and oil has gone up more than — well, more than an average bread winner would dare to hear uttered. A ton of flour (20 bags) now sells for 450 USD; a single bag now is sold for 30100 AFN. For many, it was too costly to many when it was sold for 1550 and 1600 AFN. Simultaneously, neither public servants nor the private sector employees are receiving their hard earned salary, some for nearly 5 to 6 months.
The Taliban response to this catastrophe is decrees on beards and forbidding music and female voices in the radio. A ridiculously-childish new policy by the ministry of religious control is being practiced in the northern provinces, which making roll-call sheets for each mosque in each district to make sure that people attend collective prayer five times a day. This is a form of atrocious government that brutalizes not only the body and mind, but the very soul of the people of faith. People who have been moral and devoted to their religion are now to be registered and licensed as Muslims under the eyes of religious fanatics who did not waste a single thought while bombing and shooting infants in a maternity hospital during the war.
This crisis will either go two ways, I suspect. Either it pressures the international community to recognize the Taliban in an attempt to save millions of lives, or it will weaken the Taliban and enable other fanatic groups to easily recruit soldiers and turn Afghanistan to another ISIS Campaign. Either way, the Afghan public will only be kindling for a fire.
Social media is bold.
Social media is young.
Social media raises questions.
Social media is not satisfied with an answer.
Social media looks at the big picture.
Social media is interested in every detail.
social media is curious.
Social media is free.
Social media is irreplaceable.
But never irrelevant.
Social media is you.
(With input from news agency language)
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