World’s focus has shifted to war in Ukraine, but two major new documentaries aim to throw spotlight back on Afghanistan and people left behind by United States rapid withdrawal last year. National Geographic s ‘Retrograde’ follows an Afghan general who tried in vain to hold back Taliban advance in 2021, while Netflix s ‘In Her Hands’ tells story of country’s youngest woman mayor, who had to flee as Islamists took over.

“Obviously there is still some coverage of it, but not that many people are talking about this country that we left behind.” Zarifa Ghafari, former mayor spotlighted by ‘In Her Hands,’ told AFP that back under Taliban, Afghanistan is “Only country around world nowadays where a woman can sell their body, their children, anything else but are not able to go to school.’ But at international political meetings, “Afghanistan is out of those discussions.”

Both movies begin in months before US withdrawal as their subjects tried to build safer and more egalitarian future for their country. Two films end with their central characters forced to watch from abroad as Taliban rapidly erases all their work. In one scene Sadat stubbornly determined to rally his men to fight on as situation crumbles around them chides his aide for bringing to his war office persistent reports of nearby Afghan troops downing their weapons. Former mayor Ghafari survived assassination attempts and seen her father gunned down by Taliban before she too left Afghanistan as Islamists moved in. “Talking about that moment, I am still not able to stop crying, it was something that I really never wanted to do,” said Ghafari, who drew Taliban’s ire by campaigning for girls education after being appointed mayor of Maidan Shahr aged 24.–Agencies

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 29 2022

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