They Built Libraries to Honor Loved Ones, Women Felled by Bombings
As negotiations push forward, it is unclear whether Afghanistan can achieve peace with the Taliban while preserving gains made on women’s rights and education.
The study room of the Rahila Foundation in Kabul, Afghanistan, named after a promising young student killed by an Islamic State attack.Credit.Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times
Published Feb. 21, 2021Updated March 22, 2021
KABUL, Afghanistan When his soon-to-be fiancée, Najiba Hussaini, was killed in a Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul, Hussain Rezai didn’t know how to grieve for her.
“I had lost my love, but I wasn’t allowed to mourn,” said Mr. Rezai, a 33-year-old government employee. Though they had traveled to Daikundi Province to seek her parents’ approval to marry, they weren’t officially engaged, and he felt pressure to simply move on after her death.