Advertisement Fatima Gailani was recovering from cancer at the height of the pandemic when she got the call that dragged her out of retirement for the third time. The Trump administration had signed an Afghanistan peace deal with the Taliban to put an end to the United States’ longest war. American-sponsored peace talks between the insurgent group and the Afghan government were to follow. Would she like to join? Fatima Gailani is helping negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban. Gailani, the daughter of an aristocratic Afghan family, tried to talk herself out of it. She had witnessed world powers re-establish the country with the stroke of a pen in Bonn in December 2001, but she also saw diplomacy crumble just as swiftly in ensuing years. Still, the prospect of healing her country’s deepest wounds was too strong.