“It’s a very bad situation there,” said an Afghan American woman, 35, of Fresh Meadows, Queens who did not want to give her name because she feared retaliation. “All the people have no food, no money, the bank is closed.”

Over a month after the Taliban invaded Afghanistan, banks remain closed because they lost international aid. Seventy five percent of Afghanistan’s public spending is financed through international aid grants, according to the World Bank. Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, foreign currency and US-led international aid has been blocked. This has added to the collapse of Afghanistan’s financial infrastructure.

While Western Union was reported to resume money-transfer services to Afghanistan in the past month, the payout is only available mostly in Kabul, the epicentre of the takeover where locals are in hiding. One Afghan American woman has been able to send money to her family through an underground exchange market.

“I have to do it a really back, back, back way,” said Maryam Naziri, 33, of Austin, Texas. “There are these underground exchange markets where you send your money to an Afghan store, and then with a code your family will go and pick it up. I’ve been sending [money to] my grandmother, sometimes my aunt, because my young cousins are in hiding.”

The Taliban has killed those who resisted their rule in the streets, leaving civilians afraid to go outside.

 “All Afghan people are sad for our country” said the Afghan American woman of Fresh Meadows. “It’s not a good situation. Other countries aren’t coming for help.”

The Taliban are a predominantly Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist group, originally consisting of students trained in Islamic religious schools, that started to gain influence in the 1990’s after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, taking over the country from 1996 until the U.S. invasion in 2001. The mission of the Taliban was to restore a conservative interpretation of Sharia law. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan, enforcing harsh ruling that neglected social services, eliminated women from public life, employment, education, public executions of murderers and adulterers, amputations for those accused of theft, and banned music and television. 

Under the Taliban’s ruling, Afghanistan became a breeding ground and sanctuary for Islamic militants including Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and organizer of the 9/11 attacks, the largest terror attack ever conducted on U.S. soil. The attacks led to the U.S. launching of the Afghanistan war in October of 2001, making counter-terrorism the focus of foreign policy and beginning the longest war in the history of the United States, ending just two months ago, after a peace agreement was struck during the Trump administration with the Taliban in February of 2020 to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

 “The Taliban don’t really have a sense of governance,” said Dr. Bahar Jalali, Afghan historian and founder of the first Gender Studies program in Afghanistan. “This is not a group that knows about economic policy and fiscal policy… they haven’t thought about all these things.”

 For the past 20 years, after the Taliban was removed from power in 2001, Afghan women made valiant strides. They occupied schools, higher education, medicine, music, media, and their presence filled the streets. In 2018, the literacy rate for females in Afghanistan was at 30 percent, according to a recent UNESCO report. Now, women and girls haven’t been to school for over two weeks.

“We cannot go outside because of the threat to our lives,” said Fereshta Sediqi, 22, a student at Kabul University who is currently unable to attend. “I can no longer continue my education and my dreams have vanished. Our goals cannot be reached anymore.”

This photo is caught from video that was recorded by RAWA in Kabul using a hidden camera. It shows two Taliban from department of Amr bil Ma-roof (Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Taliban religious police) beating a woman in public because she has dared to remove her burqa in public. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Others in Afghanistan have had to change locations frequently, leaving them unable to work.

“My family has had to change location many times or stay in hiding in fear of losing their lives” said Nazari. 

Being in hiding without the ability to work and access banks or supermarkets has led to mass hunger issues. One in three people in Afghanistan are currently going hungry. That’s 14 million people, including 2 million children that are malnourished, with requests for food assistance rapidly increasing since August 15.

 “They [ate] three times a day, now they try to eat one time a day,” said the Afghan woman of Fresh Meadows. “They only eat bread, sugar, and tea.” 

Some Afghan Americans, like Nazari,  are fighting for their families to be evacuated  so they can restart their lives.  

“I’ve been working really hard to find a way to evacuate them, but I haven’t had any luck yet,” said Nazari. “I have sponsored them myself. I filled out a humanitarian [form] for them. I am praying that they will get accepted. I want the oppression to end with me in my family. We have paid our dues. We have been through so much.” 

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U.S forces are officially scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but Afghan nationals who work or worked for Americans, often at great risk, will be left behind and in fear of being targeted by the Taliban.

“We were not thinking that the situation would get worse and worse,” said Mohammad who is one of tens of thousands of Afghans employed by the U.S. military, government and private contractors during the last 12 years. Today like many Afghans, Mohammad, 38, who did not want to give his full name for fear of retribution, is uncertain about his future and worried about his family’s safety. His job with a U.S government agency is expected to end next year.

“I am worried because I don’t know what is going to happen,” he said. “I can be kidnapped or killed.”

Mohammad started to work for the U.S government in January 2007 and worked six days a week for more than seven years in Kabul.

According to U.S. authorities, 651 SIV visas were issued to individual Afghan applicants who work for or on behalf of the U.S government from October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013. It is less than half of the 1,500 visas allowed by the U.S for the same period.

Ronald Payne, Director of Allied Freedom Projects, a nonprofit organization established in 2007 to assist Afghan and Iraqi SIV applicants, said that about 75% of all the interpreters have had serious difficulties in obtaining these visas.

“It would be nearly impossible to successfully complete any mission without them [local interpreters],” said Payne.

He said that the personnel involved in processing and adjudicating the SIV Visas do not understand the nuances of the culture, leading to serious errors such as name discrepancy.

“Considering that the Chief of Mission and the Consular Officers decisions are ‘discretionary’ and beyond any real form of transparent administrative or judicial review, one must suspect that in many cases an adverse decision was really an erroneous decision and that no process is in place to correct a manifest error or injustice,” said Payne.

Mohammad has waited for his visa for over three years. He applied in December 2011 for a Special Immigration Visa (SIV), created by the U.S Congress, which allows Iraqi or Afghan allies to immigrate to the U.S.

There are a lot of forms to fill out, recommendation letters to be secured and it is a costly process, he said, which deters applicants. But many of those who completed the process are rejected. The reason given in his first rejection letter is that Mohammad’s employment was either funded by a grant or cooperative agreement or he was not actually employed by or in behalf of the U.S. government.

“The reason they are giving to reject my application is not a proper reason,” said Mohammad, “My recommendation letter said that I am paid by the U.S. government and I am working for them. They [U.S authorities] are sending rejection letters by email and then they are not giving us a chance to meet in order to explain the process.”

In May 2012, he applied again for a visa. This time, his U.S supervisor wrote a new recommendation lauding his skills.

“In my years of supervising Mr. Mohammad, I have always found him to be a loyal, dedicated, highly motivated, competent, and outstanding individual,” said the U.S. supervisor, “Our organization considers his efforts on our behalf as exemplary.”

Despite months of support from American colleagues, his application was denied a second time in August 2012. The third application is still waiting for approval.

“Even if I leave the U.S organization, I suspect that I will still be registered with the Taliban as a U.S employee and I will face the same problems and threats,” said Mohammad, “The job market is very low in Afghanistan and I am afraid that if I lose my job, I will not be able to support my family, send my kids to school or provide decent facilities for us.”

The State Department declined to answer questions about the bureaucratic delay of SIV visas.

“I personally know some SIV applicants who have been waiting for over six years and have been continuously employed by the U.S. Government for the past 10 to 11 years,” said Payne, “Something is wrong here if you can’t figure out if somebody is a good or bad guy in ten years, then tell me how long it will take to figure that out.”

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Inside this wooden container sits the flag that covered Johnny Kihm's casket when his body arrived at Dover Air Force base. Photo by Chris Palmer.

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Cecelia Kihm’s life changed the day that two strangers knocked on her front door.

It was April 19, 2011. Kihm, 51, a freckled, sandy-haired pre-school teacher, was at home in her green-carpeted living room watching the television show “Ellen.”

She opened the door to two Army soldiers, standing in uniform on the concrete steps in front of her brick rowhome in the Castor Gardens section of Philadelphia.

“When I looked at them, heat just went down my body,” she said.

Her baby-faced 19-year old son, Johnny, had deployed to Afghanistan a month earlier. Several members of his unit had died already, including three that week.

She invited the soldiers in. After taking a few seconds to collect her thoughts, she asked them to deliver the news.

Her son was dead, they said. Killed in combat.

During sleepless nights since Johnny had enlisted, Kihm told herself that if this day ever came, she wouldn’t react like characters do in movies. No violent crying, no denial, no hitting the messenger.

But she was overridden with grief. She kept saying, “It’s too soon. It’s too soon.”

She went upstairs to tell her oldest daughter, Marybeth, who was 24 at the time.

“I didn’t even know how to say it,” Kihm said.

Her husband John, just returning from work, collapsed in agony when he saw the two men in his living room. He cried on the adjacent dining room floor.

And Kihm’s middle child, daughter Meghan, who was then 21, threw up after she was told.

“It was horrible,” Kihm said.

This scene – a family torn apart by news of a young soldier’s untimely death – is not uncommon. As of April 28, 2012, nearly 6,500 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since the Afghan War began in 2001. Thousands more have died in non-hostile situations, through circumstances like training exercises, illness, or by suicide.

But all military families who lose a loved one have to deal with a variety of unique challenges, according to Ami Neiberger-Miller, a public affairs officer with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS).

“The experience of military loss is so unique,” she said.

According to TAPS research, more than 80 percent of military deaths are traumatic and unexpected, catching family members by surprise. Military families are often thrust into the spotlight after the death, forced to take up the role of spokespeople to the media and strangers who want to honor the family and the fallen soldier. And some military family members suffer from insomnia, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

“There’s no rulebook to guide families and help them,” Neiberger-Miller said. “It’s a long journey.”

For the Kihms, just over a year after Johnny’s passing, the sadness that comes from being one of those families, shrunken by war, never ends.

“I always feel like I’m stuck in that two week period, from when we found out until when we buried him,” Kihm said. “It doesn’t feel like we just had a year. It doesn’t feel like it at all.”

Marybeth, now 25, put it more succinctly.

“It sucks,” she said.

“If you’re going to be in it, you’re going to be in it.”

At Cardinal Dougherty High School, Johnny ran cross-country and wrestled. But he was especially drawn to the Marines “Delayed Entry Program,” which gives individuals under the age of 18 a chance to work with soldiers to prepare for enlistment at a later date.

Once a week, he trained with the Marines, and throughout high school he dreamed of enlisting after graduation.

In March of his senior year, though, he changed his mind. After high school, he spent a semester at the Abington campus of Pennsylvania State University.

But his interest in the military wouldn’t stay suppressed for long. After his first semester of college, Johnny returned home for Christmas break and told his parents he had made up his mind: he wanted to enlist.

Kihm wasn’t exactly thrilled, but she had told her son when he was in high school that she would support him if he decided to join.

“I knew that’s what he wanted,” she said.

Johnny and his parents considered both the Marines and the Army, and eventually decided that the Army would be a better fit. He enlisted, and on March 1, 2010, deployed to basic training at Fort Benning, in Georgia.

“I really thought he was going to be alright.”

Johnny Kihm in his Army gear. Photo provided by the Kihm family.

In June 2010, after completing basic training, Johnny moved to Fort Drum, N.Y., with the 10th Mountain Division infantry unit. He was supposed to stay there until May 2011, when the unit would be deployed to Afghanistan. But the deployment date was moved up two months. They shipped out on March 17, 2011.

Kihm had two phone conversations and four Facebook chat sessions with Johnny while he was overseas. She kept a record of all the interactions in a datebook.

“I would sit by the computer and just look for that little dot to appear,” she said, waiting for him to sign on to Facebook.

Her last phone call with him was on April 15, 2011. The conversation was brief, but he said they would talk more later.

He died four days after the call.

Before Johnny’s death, the possibility of losing her son never felt real, Kihm said. But now, the reality is inescapable.

“Some days it’s more like day one than day two,” she said.

“All this wouldn’t have happened if that wouldn’t have happened.”

While the Kihms grapple with Johnny’s death on a daily basis, they have also found various ways to dedicate themselves to new causes in his memory.

John, Johnny’s father, has taken up volunteering at the Philadelphia Veterans Comfort House, a shelter for homeless veterans.

Cecelia sends boxes of supplies – cigarettes, magazines, Red Bulls – to Johnny’s unit (a pack of cigarettes is accompanied by a note, telling the soldier on the receiving end that they have to promise to quit smoking).

One of her more recent efforts was to style pillowcases for the unit members.

And after finding out that the soldiers don’t have anything to put into the pillowcases, she decided that her next goal is to figure out a way to send the troops pillows.

Together, the Kihms established a foundation – the Pfc. Johnny Kihm Memorial Fund – that, among other activities, is raising money through events and t-shirt sales to refurbish a United Service Organizations lounge for military members at the Syracuse airport, near Fort Drum (the Kihms declined to say how much money they’ve raised so far).

And they’ve received countless gifts, tokens of support and donations in Johnny’s name – occasionally from complete strangers – which they in turn donate to the foundation, or use to buy supplies for the care packages.

Ingrid Seunarine, a bereavement counselor in New York City who directs grief counseling programs for Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens, said that it’s common for people to donate time and energy to various causes after the death of a loved one. Doing so, she said, can help individuals cope with the loss, while also honoring the memory of the deceased.

“You have to keep that connection in your heart,” she said.

“It never stops.”

In the year since Johnny’s death, the Kihms have been visited by scores of wounded warriors and other supporters, wishing to pay their respects to the fallen soldier’s family.

Kihm said she has a deep sense of gratitude for the gestures and the soldiers who go out of their way to support them, especially those in the 10th Mountain Division.

“I feel like they’re mine,” she said.

But she also said that at times, unexpected visits, combined with the milestones that pass without her son – Memorial Day, 9/11, his unit’s first extended period of leave – can make it feel “like the viewing day never stops.”

After a few hours of talking about Johnny, with the smell of a home-cooked meal wafting through her living room, the pain in Kihm’s heart surfaced. With her eyes welling up, she recalled a moment that happened at Johnny’s funeral.

During the ceremony, she said, she reached out and touched her son’s closed casket.
Then she put her hand on her husband. Marybeth had her arm around him as well.

Kihm then whispered to Meghan, telling her to reach over and touch Marybeth.

And they formed a chain, linking Meghan, to Marybeth, to John, to Cecelia, to Johnny.

“We were all holding each other,” she said, her voice quivering.

Later that day, the Kihms would bury Johnny at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Northeast Philadelphia.

But at that moment, they sat together as a family for the last time.

“It was beautiful,” said Kihm, fighting off tears.

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Senior citizens rally Saturday outside their Hallmark Battery Park retirement home, demanding that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan be brought home. The group was joined by members of other anti-war organizations. Photo by Kathryn Kattalia

With her neatly cropped silver hair and wide, finely lined smile, Frances Berrick looks as if she could be anyone’s grandmother. Slightly hard of hearing and dependent on a red-and-white walking cane to keep her balance, the 89-year-old is quick to joke she’s “a youngster.”

But when it comes to political activism, she instantly becomes serious.

“I did a lot of demonstrating in my younger years, especially during the civil rights movement,” Berrick said. “I demonstrated for the Vietnam War, and spent many weekends in Washington trying to get Roe versus Wade passed. We were successful there. We want to be successful here.”

Wearing pearl earrings and a sign around her neck reading, “Billions for health, not war,” Berrick and her husband were among dozens of senior citizens who rallied outside their Hallmark Battery Park retirement home yesterday, demanding that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan be brought home after nearly 10 years overseas.

“The main point we want to send is that we are very, very interested in seeing this war end,” Berrick said. “We want to see the money being spent in the Middle East be used for things other than killing.”

For those passing by on the street, the scene along North End Avenue was an unusual one, as senior citizens inched by in walkers and wheel chairs, their chants for peace barely audible above the noise of the city. For the elderly marchers, the rally was a necessary step in drawing attention to an issue they believe has lost the interest of younger generations.

“I’m a little surprised that young people aren’t demonstrating anymore,” Berrick said. “Why aren’t you out there? This affects you. It’s important.”

Joining up with other anti-war organizations, such as the groups Grandmothers Against the War and Granny Peace Brigade, demonstrators expressed frustration over delayed efforts to withdraw U.S. forces from the Middle East, citing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a waste of valuable lives and money.

Murry Katz, an 89-year-old World War II veteran and vice president of Hallmark’s political action committee, said he has seen firsthand the toll of war. Once a combat engineer stationed in Europe for four years, Katz said he was in constant danger reconstructing bridges blown up by German forces. But, he said, the risk to today’s soldiers is not worth the fight.

“During World War II, we fought against an enemy,” Katz said. “This is not a just war. Young men are dying for no reason. What are we doing there?”

Resting on a bench out of the sun, 88-year-old Myron Berrick watched as his wife led demonstrators in a simple chant.

A World War II veteran whose rifle platoon was one of the first to invade Germany, he said he, too, understands the devastating side effects war has on a generation.

“I’ve been there myself,” he said. “Young people today are not as anti-war in the past, and I think it’s because they’re so immune to violence. The idea of war isn’t so new to them, but it solves nothing. Every veteran I know thinks that.”

While the protest lasted only an hour, demonstrators said they will continue to spread their message. Some plan to write letters to the White House, urging President Obama to commit to his plan to begin withdrawing troops by next year.

Joan Wile, the 79-year-old director of Grandmothers Against the War, said her group has been working for seven years to bring an end to the conflict overseas, holding weekly candlelight vigils at Rockefeller Center.

“We’re deeply concerned for our grand children’s future and for America’s future,” Wile said. “We know these wars are terrible. We’ve been through it. It’s a terrible waste of young people’s lives and resources.”

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