The many iterations of conflict: the fall of the mujahideen and the rise of the Taleban

For Afghanistan, the global reality meant decades of ongoing fighting. The conflict in Afghanistan, which my family had left behind in 1985, continued to rage, albeit with an array of different protagonists. A year after Bahaouddin Majrooh was killed, in February 1989, the Soviets announced their withdrawal. It was the moment Majrooh had been anticipating, and preparing others for, as the opportune time for the nation to pull back together and recast itself in the image of its own people, rather than being pushed and torn apart by the dogmatic ideologies of the communists or the Islamists. But the moment passed in disarray.