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Many have been puzzled by the coverage selections of the Biden administration vis-à-vis Afghanistan since the USA’ disastrous withdrawal from the nation final August. It isn’t clear whether or not these selections are geared toward appeasing home audiences or collectively punishing a individuals for the unsuccessful ending of an extended and dear battle. Both method, they’re inflicting immense struggling to Afghans who’ve already suffered sufficient.
Certainly, the checklist of latest US coverage selections which have been objectively dangerous to the Afghan individuals is seemingly countless. After the withdrawal in August, for instance, the US didn’t swiftly evacuate and resettle 1000’s of Afghans who had helped its troops and immediately discovered themselves susceptible to retaliation. Many of those persons are nonetheless in limbo in third nations, or in hiding in Afghanistan some six months later. After the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Washington additionally renewed sanctions and froze Afghan funds, leaving the nation’s banking system in shambles. All this led to an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, leaving eight out of 9 households in Afghanistan in want of meals assist. A number of months later, President Joe Biden signed an government order splitting $7bn in frozen Afghan funds held in US banks, allotting half for the good thing about the Afghan individuals, however retaining the opposite half obtainable for attainable seizure by victims of the September 11 assaults.
And some weeks in the past, the US added another inexplicably vengeful coverage to this checklist: it cancelled the Fulbright International Pupil Program in Afghanistan for the 2022-23 tutorial yr.
This will seem to be a minor growth within the grand scheme of issues. However for dozens of younger Afghan students, it marked the shattering of all their goals and hopes for a greater future.
Fulbright, America’s flagship academic change programme with the said purpose of “constructing bridges between the US and different nations”, gives Afghan graduate college students with the chance to acquire a fully-funded masters diploma within the US.
On January 28, 140 Afghan semifinalists of the programme – who all handed a rigorous overview course of based mostly on tutorial excellence, management expertise, work expertise, command of English, and power of research/analysis aims to achieve this degree – acquired an e mail that maybe modified their lives ceaselessly. It learn: “Because of vital boundaries impeding our skill to supply a protected change expertise, the choice course of for the Fulbright International Pupil Program in Afghanistan for the 2022-23 tutorial yr is not going to transfer ahead.”
Throughout the nation, semifinalists, who had sacrificed a lot and labored so arduous to be thought of for the life-changing alternative, have been left devastated.
“I begged my kinfolk to pay for my TOEFL take a look at [Test of English as a Foreign Language, passing of which is a prerequisite to admission into the Fulbright Program] and took it when Kandahar was in the midst of intense battle,” a semifinalist named Sayed Abdul Rahim Afghan tweeted. The evening earlier than the take a look at, I couldn’t sleep due to the sounds of incessant gunfire and explosions. And that is the reply we get after one yr.”
The cancellation has “ruined my life”, Noor Mohammad, a semifinalist from rural Paktika, an space that has been devastated by battle, drought and poverty for over 40 years in southeastern Afghanistan, instructed the media. “I had deliberate my complete profession and life round it and sacrificed the whole lot else for it. I’m in shock now and have no idea what to do.”
Many others revealed how they’d needed to borrow cash or work as labourers to pay for language programs. They defined how after hours of back-breaking handbook labour, they studied for TOEFL at evening, in candlelight, with no electrical energy or web entry. They defined how they now really feel hopeless, misplaced.
I used to be deeply saddened by these accounts as a result of I do know too effectively how painful such a loss can be.
Some years in the past, I too was a highschool scholar in rural Afghanistan who dreamt of securing a Fulbright scholarship and finding out within the US. I lived in a village in Nangarhar, the place I had no entry to electrical energy, clear ingesting water, or perhaps a chair to sit down on whereas I studied. I might wait by a muddy street early each morning for a truck to go by, so I might bounce on the again to go to a language course in Jalalabad. It took years of arduous work, many sacrifices, however ultimately, I did it: I turned a Fulbright scholar.
The programme allowed me to attend Oregon State College (OSU) and reside in Corvallis, probably the most lovely faculty cities within the US.
All through the programme, I had the chance to fulfill and change concepts with People from all walks of life – teachers, professionals, my neighbours. I instructed them tales of Afghanistan, they usually shared their experiences of American life with me.
I had the chance to fulfill Professor Francis Fukuyama, and exchanged emails with Professor Noam Chomsky. I had lengthy, pleasant discussions over espresso with a pastor, a priest and a rabbi. I presided over the Muslim College students’ Affiliation (MSA) for over a yr at OSU and organized iftars for Muslims throughout Ramadan. I attended tutorial and cultural programmes organised by Indigenous and Black American scholar golf equipment.
The Fulbright Program undoubtedly modified the trajectory of my life. It additionally taught me a lot about life, and the significance of people-to-people relationships past borders. I had the chance to see how People in city centres and rural areas alike go about their lives understanding little or no about Afghanistan and Afghans regardless of the US’s in depth involvement in my nation. I noticed how frequent it’s for them to imagine “all Afghans are terrorists”. However I additionally noticed how open they are often to study, as soon as they meet an Afghan.
For this reason the US State Division’s resolution to cancel the Fulbright scholarship programme for Afghan students in 2022-23 is devastating and unacceptable.
This resolution undoubtedly crushed 140 younger Afghan students, together with 70 resilient women, who had labored extremely arduous to achieve the semi-finals. However the cancellation is not going to solely hurt them.
This unlucky resolution may even hurt the US and its already much-tainted legacy in my nation.
Based on the State Division, round 960 Afghans have benefitted from Fulbright scholarships since 2003. Meaning, because the US invasion of Afghanistan, 960 shiny younger Afghans had the chance to check within the US, find out about American tradition, educate People about their nation, and develop into “bridges” between the 2 nations.
After the US’s catastrophic exit from Afghanistan, such cultural, tutorial and human connections are extra vital than ever earlier than.
The US now has to resolve what legacy it needs to go away behind in Afghanistan after ending its 20-year occupation: A legacy of collective punishment and abandonment, or a legacy of mutual respect and cooperation.
Since final August, the Biden administration’s coverage selections constantly signalled a choice for collective punishment. Largely because of the US, my nation is at present on the point of famine, its economic system is strangled, its central financial institution reserves are frozen and other people do not need entry to their financial savings.
However this doesn’t should be the US’s legacy in Afghanistan. It isn’t too late to vary course, and do the appropriate factor.
Reviving the Fulbright scholarship programme for Afghans may very well be a small first step in the direction of correcting the US’s latest missteps in Afghanistan. It could not solely present the semi-finalists that their arduous work was not for nothing, but in addition sign to all Afghans that the US remains to be prepared to construct bridges between the 2 nations.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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