Fleeing Afghanistan: Fara Abbas on Starting Over

Fara Abbas, a Fellow with the Harvard Negotiation Task Force is a specialist on Afghan affairs with over 10 years of in-country experience on security, peace, and development. She fled Afghanistan in August after the Taliban takeover, and a stipend by a number of Harvard entities – including the Mittal Institute – is supporting her year-long Fellowship at Harvard. Prior to her role at Harvard, Fara served in senior government positions, representing Afghanistan in international negotiations and conferences.

Mittal Institute: I know your journey here was arduous – you fled Afghanistan for a refugee camp in Qatar, before coming to Cambridge. Can you expand a bit upon your experience?

Fara Abbas: Yes, I’d be happy to. The first few days after the takeover were surreal. We were in complete shock and the situation was chaotic. It all happened so suddenly, and everyone was caught off guard. Just as it happened in Ukraine.

My husband and I initially decided to move house in case the Taliban came looking for us - which they did later on. At that point, we had both been working for the government’s security sector. The day we were supposed to move, my friend from the US embassy called and said I should come to the airport now. It was clear to us that we had no other option than to leave. Our lives would be under threat – the Taliban are infamous for their brutality.

As soon as I entered the airport, I broke down. I cried for the country, for our people, for all that could have been, for our potential, for my home, my family… it makes me emotional even today. We had come so far and achieved so much. And it was all gone. At the same time, I was relieved that my husband and I were now safe. We were brought to Qatar first. By the time we left Doha two weeks later, the camp population had doubled. We

then traveled to the US and were housed in a Marines base. The journey was emotionally arduous for all of us. We were all mourning the loss of our home, not knowing if we would be able to see it again, worried about friends and family left behind, uncertain about the future.

It took us a couple of weeks to get out of the Marines’ base and come to Cambridge. Our arrival in the US was so unplanned and sudden that the first couple of months were overwhelming. I remember being exhausted all the time. Our minds were on overdrive trying to make sense of our new reality while coping with all that happened. It all still feels like a nightmare.

Mittal Institute: You have spent your entire professional career in civil service. What led you on your career path, and what research are you focused on while here at Harvard?

Fara Abbas: I went into civil service because I wanted to make a difference – to help Afghanistan develop so it breaks free from the cycle of poverty and conflict. I don’t know how much of a difference I made, but I enjoyed my work. I got to work on some very interesting projects – from negotiating regional economic cooperation to formulating foreign and security policies. There was also never a dull moment. Coming to terms with losing the achievements of the past two decades has been the hardest for me.

At Harvard, my research focuses on the new complex conflict and negotiation environment in Afghanistan with the Taliban in power. The former Afghan government spent nearly a year trying to reach a power-sharing agreement with the insurgent group. Those negotiations failed to produce a deal that could have formed a new coalition government and a stable political order. My research will be looking at the various national, regional, and international actors, and their key interests, alliances and rivalries to help understand the new sets of challenges to negotiations on peace and stability.

Mittal Institute: Many of us read about the collapse of Afghanistan – you lived it. Were there early warning signs of the Taliban takeover, or did it come as a surprise to you?

Fara Abbas: It was both. There were signs it was coming, but it was also a shock when it actually happened.

I think everything changed last April when President Biden announced total US withdrawal by September 11. Before then, the Afghan government thought Biden would reverse Trump’s Doha deal. When it became conclusive that Biden would not, the security forces lost morale. While Afghan leadership tried to continue the fight throughout the early summer, without critical US support, they eventually learned the hard truth: Corruption had hollowed the government. The security forces did not want to fight; they were poorly coordinated; and they lacked a larger strategy.

The insurgency made rapid advances through the late spring and summer, often capturing territories without a fight. Their advances were so quick that even foreign intelligence reports couldn’t keep up. In early summer, the intelligence predicted 9 to 18 months until the Taliban takeover of Kabul. By late summer, they predicted three months. Days before Kabul’s fall, they predicted 30 days. No one saw it coming as swiftly as it did. Mittal Institute: It has been reported that the Afghan people are facing a humanitarian crisis after the collapse. In your opinion, where does the country go from here – what should the international community focus on in terms of helping Afghanistan stabilize?

Fara Abbas: The situation is unfortunately very dire. The most urgent priority to address is the humanitarian crisis.

The international community should take any conceivable measure to prevent the looming humanitarian disaster. The US, UN, and others have come up with some creative solutions to help mitigate these challenges in a way that limits undue benefits to the Taliban. For instance, UNICEF just announced they will pay teacher salaries. The IRC has been distributing cash to those in need. The World Food Programme (WFP) has been distributing food.

But these are temporary solutions and not sustainable. The second urgent priority should be to help stabilize the economy that is suffering from severe lack of liquidity. The US government is currently working on designing and setting up temporary financial mechanisms that allow the country to receive some of their foreign reserves to recapitalize the financial system without lifting sanctions on the Taliban leadership. The Treasury Department’s recently issued general licenses that authorize transactions involving Afghanistan and its governing institutions that would otherwise be prohibited by US sanctions. These are all measured steps in a positive direction.

[This interview took place in March 2022.]

Faculty

Clockwise from top left:

Satchit Balsari; Diana Eck; Vikram Patel; Kristen Stilt; Asim Khwaja (upper left); Mariam Chughtai (left) and Amartya Sen (right); Venkatesh Murthy; Conor Walsh; Jennifer Leaning.

The Mittal Institute supports faculty-led multidisciplinary research projects and programs in the disciplines of arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

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Jinah Kim (left) and Mehwish Abid, Visiting Artist Fellow; Durba Mitra; Roluahpuia (left) and Sugata Bose; Rahul Mehrotra; Ajay Singh; Homi Bhabha; Tarun Khanna, Martha Chen and Jacqueline Bhabha.