Story of Hope from
"Afghanistan"
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Over the years, some 3.7 million Afghan refugees have fled Afghanistan to neighboring Iran & Pakistan.  Most recently, the rise of the Taliban movement beginning in 1994 and their subsequent overthrow by the United States and coalition forces in 2001, have contributed to the country’s instability.  The country has been at war almost unceasingly since 1979 when it was first invaded by the Soviet Union.
 
The Soviet invasion met stiff resistance from Muslim rebels, called mujahideen, who received support from the United States. The Soviets agreed to withdraw in 1986 and completed their withdrawal in 1989. In 1992, various rebel groups entered Kabul and took over the government; however, they soon fell to warring. Between 1994 and 1995, Islamic students, called the Taliban, seized Kabul and imposed both order and strict and repressive Islamic law. By 1998, the Taliban controlled ninety percent of the country.

Popular enthusiasm about the Taliban did not last long, when the Taliban turn their captured rockets against civilians, especially in Kabul. The Taliban executed members of the previous government including the former head of state, causing many more to flee the country.  In all areas under their control, the Taliban enforced a strict Islamic social order, insisting that all men grow beards and forbidding women from work outside their homes. Schools for girls were closed, and Islamic law was enforced by amputations and public executions.  The most serious resistance to the Taliban came from the Northern Alliance, a body dominated by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. In October 2001, the United States launched attacks on the Taliban in response to the Taliban's refusal to expel Osama bin Laden and his terrorist Al Qaeda network.

Afghanistan's economic outlook has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, but despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan remains extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid, farming, and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs.

The UN has been able to repatriate over two million Afghan refugees but several million more continue to reside in Iran and Pakistan in camps and elsewhere, many at their own choosing—no longer having anything to return to.