‘between the dragon and his wrath’, 1994–2017woman volunteer working with Operation Mercy in Kabul was killed and
her colleague abducted. At the time of writing two foreign teachers, an
Australian and an American, from the American University of Kabul and
at least two other foreign female aid workers are being held captive by the
Taliban or kidnappers. Afghanistan is currently the most dangerous place
in the world for humanitarian workers.
The accountability gap and social impact of the international
interventionThe foreign intervention of 2001 created an artificial economic boom as
billions of dollars of foreign aid poured into the country and thousands of
foreigners arrived. The spending power of these foreigners was a godsend
for Afghan traders, shopkeepers and landlords after years of rampant infla-
tion and economic hardship. However, the boom pushed up the price of
basic commodities, which hit the unemployed and the poor. Hundreds
of thousands of refugees returned to Afghanistan, most of whom headed
to Kabul and other urban centres in search of work, preferably with the
foreign military or other agencies. The surge in the urban population led
to massive hikes in house rents as the stock of habitable homes, particu-
larly in the capital, was at a premium. As demand for housing outstripped
supply, there was uncontrolled ribbon development in peri-urban areas
with prime agricultural land being sold for lucrative housing develop-
ments. In the urban centres themselves, many older houses were pulled
down to make way for multi-storey houses or malls. Poor people unable
to afford the inflated rents ended up packed into low-cost, overcrowded
hovels or living in tented settlements that sprang up in the periphery of
towns. Not long after the 2001 intervention, the main streets of Kabul and
other provincial capitals were full of beggars.
The government did nothing to control the urban expansion and inten-
sification, partly because many government officials and their associates
were profiting from the housing boom. Afghanistan’s minimal urban infra-
structure was stretched to breaking point. The streets of Kabul became
gridlocked with traffic, rubbish lay uncollected in the streets and ground-
water became increasingly polluted. Despite usaid’s promises to restore
power to the capital, for the first six years Kabul residents were fortunate if
they had two hours of mains electricity a day. Instead, the population used
diesel generators and burnt wood, sawdust, coal and oil. During the winter
months air pollution rates in the capital and other urban centres reached
critical levels and asthma, bronchitis and other lung diseases reached