Part 1
By Ayyub
It’s been nearly five years since the Islamic Emirate’s return to power. Afghanistan today is worlds apart from the picture its enemies and certain media outlets like to paint. Let’s cast our minds back to those days when the country’s soil sat under the boots of foreign invaders, when every district was caught in the grip of local warlords, and the sound of explosions had become just another ordinary part of people’s daily lives.
In those dark days, nobody believed a day would come when an independent Islamic system would not only bring security to people’s homes, but would also leave clear, remarkable achievements of its own in the economic, judicial, social, and diplomatic fields. But today that belief has turned into reality, and the IEA, through its faith and the people’s support, has managed to bring about historic changes in this exhausted, war-torn country.
But in a region like Afghanistan, every major change always comes paired with waves of doubt, accusations, and sabotage. The IEA’s system is no exception to this rule. As soon as the IEA returned, groups whose main capital was insecurity and chaos, media outlets that fed themselves on people’s misfortunes and hardships, and certain regional and outside powers whose own interests were tied to the continuation of crisis in Afghanistan, all launched a full-scale campaign against this system.
They tried to cast doubt on the IEA’s major achievements through accusations like administrative incompetence, international isolation, human rights abuses, or cooperation with terrorist groups. These accusations, repeated every day in new language and new shapes, might look convincing at first glance, but in light of the facts on the ground, one after another, they lose their force.
Because the truth is something else. The truth is that over the past five years, the IEA has recorded achievements across all the country’s major areas, achievements with no equal, not during the Republic era, nor at any other stage of Afghanistan’s contemporary history. On security, Afghanistan today is in the safest condition it’s been in. For the first time in half a century, the country’s borders are fully under the control of national forces, and the terrorist group ISIS, once considered a symbol of savagery and barbarism, has, according to the system’s own officials and international reports, been completely eliminated from this land. This broad security is the system’s greatest asset, one that has laid the ground for every other achievement.
On the economic front, the country has moved away from dependence on foreign aid and the era of begging, taking real steps toward self-sufficiency based on domestic revenue. The great Qosh Tepa Canal, considered one of the region’s major infrastructure projects, irrigates the thirsty lands of the country’s north through national funding, and the stability of the afghani against foreign currencies reflects the strengthening of the system’s economic foundations. On rule of law and justice, sharia courts have handled hundreds of thousands of civil and criminal cases with speed and precision, and a judicial system built on sharia has not only laid the ground for justice in people’s lives, but has also taken steps to prevent land-grabbing and administrative corruption.
The IEA has a notable record on the social front too. Comprehensive support for orphans, widows, and people with disabilities, treatment for tens of thousands of people who had become addicted to drugs and fallen victim to this home-wrecking scourge during the occupation, and attention to the problems of returning refugees, all show that this system considers itself committed and responsible toward its people, not the way its enemies portray it. On foreign policy too, despite all the pressure and sanctions, the IEA has managed to build broad relations and engagement with regional countries and world powers, and has received formal recognition from several major powers, including Russia.
The purpose of this series of articles is to restate these same simple, clear facts. We don’t want to tire the reader’s mind with grand slogans and general talk, we’re trying instead, using plain, human, and documented language, to present the system’s five-year record, from security and economy to justice and diplomacy, one piece at a time, in the mirror of truth. Alongside this, we’ll offer clear and logical answers to the accusations being raised against this system from various directions.
Because we believe doubt survives in darkness, and can only be dispelled in the light of truth. The IEA today is a historic and national reality, one built on the blood and sacrifice of this land’s youth, and every free person who believes in Afghanistan’s peace and prosperity carries the duty to work toward protecting and sustaining this system, and to not let liars take this great achievement away from the people of this land.
