'Afghans were hoping for a bright future'

Five years on from the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, the country remains in the grip of a humanitarian crisis - particularly for women and girls.

After hundreds of Afghans were resettled across Yorkshire having fled their home country, families share how their lives have since changed.

Hamidullah Khyber describes 15 August 2021 as a "dark day in the Afghan history".

He moved to York just six days later as the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan.

His job as a the former director of Afghan borders meant he had "no choice" but to leave his home in Kabul.

Prior to that role, he was a translator for the British armed forces, where he was injured by the Taliban while travelling by helicopter.

Now living with PTSD from the incident, Hamidullah says the helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade "and it went down".

"So that was the first time I got shot in the head. I still have fragments in the head.

"I cannot live there, I will be targeted and I will be killed because of... the work that I've done for the interests of this nation (UK).

"It is a very tough life, it is full of pain, not only for me, for every single Afghan that lived in that country or has run away from that country and lives somewhere abroad."

Hamidullah says: "People were hoping for a bright future in that country.

"Our people deserve better. I don't want to be hopeless.

"I would like to return today if possible.

"The problem is my daughters won't be able to go to school.

"I will have no right of freedom of speech.

"There is no government. Our embassies around the world are shutting down every day.

"The government is not recognised by international community."

A coalition of international forces completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of a 20-year campaign in the country.

US-led forces went into Afghanistan in 2001, removing the Taliban from power in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, which were blamed on al-Qaeda - a militant jihadist group.

The UK sent forces but ended its combat operations in 2014, leaving hundreds of troops to help train the Afghan government's army.

In February 2020, a withdrawal deal was signed by the Taliban and the US under President Donald Trump, and a year later his successor Joe Biden honoured the agreement.

As the US pulled out troops and reduced military support for the Afghan army, the Taliban made rapid territorial gains, reclaiming control of the whole country by mid-August.

Hossain Saeedi fled the conflict in Afghanistan due to his role at the British Embassy - he says his association with a foreign country posed "a risk".

He explains that "in the Taliban's view people who work with Westerners should not be tolerated".

Hossain says he tries not to look back as a coping mechanism, having experienced "the highest degree of trauma".

Now working for the British Red Cross in its Refugee Services, he helps asylum seekers with "destitution support, finding a legal rep and advocacy around homelessness" in Leeds.

Hossain wants people in Leeds to see Afghan refugees as "humans".

"We have children, we have dreams, we do school runs. So we make sure that we are raising our children between two cultures," he says.

Hossain lives in Leeds with his wife Fereshta Hussaini, who was a journalist for a local newspaper.

Fereshta says that, six months before the Taliban took full control, life for female reporters started to change, with warnings of "if we see you to go to a newspaper, we kill you".

Her employer put in measures such as working from home and practising what to do if the Taliban approached.

Sharing an incident when a co-worker was attacked by the Taliban while reporting just outside of Kabul, Fereshta says her colleague took her brother with her, and he was then killed by the Taliban.

Describing that point in her life as a "nightmare", she says: "I can't live somewhere that my children can't get education and be like a normal person.

"When we came here I didn't know English at all and I started my college and learned English and I did my GCSE, and I will start a new course in college in creative media."

Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, girls over the age of 12 have been barred from getting an education, and women from many jobs.

In 2020, only 19% of women were part of the workforce - four times less than men.

That number has dropped even further under Taliban rule.

Khadija is a tailor who ran her own business in Afghanistan until the Taliban returned to power.

She says, when this happened: "I took out any poster from my shop and closed it.

"They don't want the women working and they don't want women and girls to go to school or university. Just stay at home.

"I lost my job in one day, I was crying inside and I lost my hope. Any woman doesn't have any future because of the Taliban.

"In my country... when I woke up, I didn't know if I'd be alive or not by night."

She describes moving to Doncaster in November 2021 as a loss of her former life.

"Everything changed - my language, my job, my education and everything new for me."

Since moving in November 2021, she has learned English and volunteers at a sewing group run by the Refugee Council.

Khadija's dream is to become a designer and build her business again.

Her hope for Afghanistan is that "one day, very soon, women work freely and they do what they want".

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