106: From Kabul to Canada (2 of 2)

 This is the second of a two-part series about Basir Bita’s escape from Afghanistan after the US withdrawal in August, 2021. In this second half of his story, Basir shares his experiences getting from Pakistan to Canada, the challenges of adjusting to a new culture, the double-standards in Western moralizing, and navigating the prejudices and stereotypes that refugees often face. Be sure to listen to part one, about the fall of Kabul and about his family’s escape from Afghanistan after the US withdrawal in August of 2021.

Also be sure to listen to our interview with Afghan photographer and interpreter Abdul Saboor, who escaped overland to France.

And our field reports and interviews with refugees in Greece.

Click to Donate!

105: Abandoned in Afghanistan (1 of 2)

On August 30th 2021, the US and its coalition partners ended their nearly twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan. Two weeks before they left, the Taliban swept across the country taking major urban centers, including Kabul. As embassies were abandoned, and as Afghans government officials fled the country, those Afghan citizens who had worked with the occupying forces faced the very real prospect of execution by the Taliban as collaborators. Yet, just Afghan interpreters had been abandoned in years past, many were left behind when the last US flight left the country. Now they, and the millions of Afghans who never had any hope of being evacuated to begin with, were left to scramble for their survival.

Basir Bita last appeared on Latitude Adjustment Podcast just two weeks before the Taliban takeover of Kabul, and a month before US and international forces left the country. Though he and his family had been issued a visa for his work with the Canadian government, they were left behind. This episode is the first of a two-part series in which Basir recounts what happened next.

Also, be sure to listen to our last episode with Basir, before the fall of Kabul.

Our interview with Afghan photographer and interpreter Abdul Saboor, who escaped overland to France.

And our field reports and interviews with refugees in Greece.

Click to Donate!

87: Will We Just Forget Afghanistan?

As the formal US occupation of Afghanistan comes to an ignominious close, human rights defender Basir Bita joins us again from Kabul. We discuss the recent offensive by the Taliban that has seen it taking large swathes of the country, the varied interests and involvement of the key international players in Afghanistan’s present and future, and perhaps most critically, the legacy of US abandonment of those Afghans who have put their lives on the line to aid its two decades of foreign occupation.

And for US citizens, this document has all the info you need concerning whom to call in Washington, and even a script for what you need to say to them to help evacuate as many Afghans as possible.

We can throw our hands up and wish that somebody would make things better, or we can be those people right now, today. The choice is yours. Let's move!

Also Recommended by Our Guest:

83: The Hazara and the US Afghanistan Withdrawal

On May 8th, 85 people were killed in a bomb attack near a school in Kabul. Many of those killed were young women. The bomb was detonated in a part of Kabul that is home to the Hazara, an Afghan minority group that has been a frequent target of attacks, including a massacre in a maternity war last year that killed 24 people. The Hazara are a predominantly Shia-Muslim ethnic minority in Afghanistan, and a community that has suffered a long history of brutal persecution and oppression. 

Previous guest, and nonviolence activist, Basir Bita joins us again from Kabul, Afghanistan, but this time we’ll be talking about his community, the Hazara, and about the personal impact that the May 8th attack had on him and on his family. Be sure to check out our previous interview with Basir in Episode 39.

For additional reading about the history and contemporary issues facing the Hazara community, be sure to check out this article from MinorityRights.org.

Additional Resources Recommended by our Guest:

70: The Terrorism Discourse

For all of the movies, books, and policy debates on the topic, and given that the largest, most expensive, and longest hot war in US history is being waged in its name, why isn’t there a coherent and consistent definition for Terrorism? Get ready to rethink everything you think you know about this word and its application.

Our guest is visual anthropologist Amanda Rogers PhD, a specialist in analyzing the propaganda of Islamic State.

• Host’s closing remarks at 1:16:14

Recommended by our guest

Episode 39: Afghanistan - Living With the US Occupation

Basir Bita spent his childhood as a refugee in Iran and moved back to Afghanistan in 2003, which means he has spent his entire adult life living under the US occupation. He currently lives in Kabul where he works as a peace activist and as a consultant monitoring and evaluating risk factors for corruption. We discuss the current peace talks between the US and the Taliban, and what he has learned talking to people from across Afghanistan’s ethnically diverse society.

Also be sure to check out our previous conversation with Abdoul Saboor who fled Afghanistan after threats from the Taliban and attacks on his family. His overland odyssey through Iran, Turkey, Eastern Europe and across the Balkans, to finally claim asylum in France, is one of the more remarkable stories I’ve encountered anywhere, and should put the ordeals of many Afghan refugees into a more human perspective.