‘All I kept thinking was we had lost everything. I knew my life and my community would totally change’
Dr. Aziz Mohibbi featured in Irish Times
Originally published on September 20, 2022 in The Irish Times
On the morning of August 15th, 2021, as Taliban fighters arrived at the gates of Kabul after sweeping across Afghanistan in less than 10 days, Dr Aziz Mohibbi drove to work in the city of Bamyan, about 200km west of the capital.
The environmental engineer and former chancellor of Bamyan University had sent his family into a nearby mountain village the day before the Afghan government collapsed into Taliban hands. Like many, he strongly believed in the months and weeks leading up to the takeover that the governing authorities would withstand the Taliban offensive. He even went ahead and planned an academic conference at Bamyan University for August 15th. However, that morning he awoke to a nation in turmoil.
“I drove myself into the university that Sunday,” Mohibbi says. “I checked all the entrances to the building, asked all the drivers to get any vehicles out of the university and then made sure everything was locked. “All I kept thinking was we had lost everything. When I heard things were collapsing I knew my life and my community would totally change. I was really confused, to be honest. I almost lost my way of thinking.”
… when the Taliban took control of Kabul, Mohibbi immediately started receiving concerned messages from friends and former colleagues overseas, including an Irish UN colleague.
“I told them I was still alive but I needed their help. I knew I was a target. But if you’re connected with good people, they will try to save your life.”
In the weeks that followed, as Mohibbi awaited news about visas, he was called to meet Taliban officials. “Most of their questions were about why boys and girls were studying together in the same classes. They also kept asking about the university money. They thought we’d have cash, but I explained the money was in the bank. They also thought we had weapons in the university. I had to explain we were not a military organisation but an educational institute.”
Read the full story here.
Dr. Aziz Mohibbi is an environmental engineer and former chancellor of Bamyan University in Afghanistan. He is co-hosted by Consortium member institutions Maynooth University and Trinity College Dublin.