A young boy extends his thin arm toward my car window, thrusting a newspaper in my face. “Twenty Afghanis,” he says, stating his price. I quickly pass him the money and retrieve the newspaper. The car continues pushing through congested traffic, the air filled with a cacophony of honking horns, blaring music, and a medley of voices. I sit back, letting the ordinary city noises wash over me. A little over a year ago, under the repressive Taliban regime, one would have been met only with the heavy sounds of silence echoing in sparsely populated streets.

Afghanis anxiously hang on to these markers of stability—signs hinting that our nation is indeed leaving behind a life of war and inching its way toward normalcy. There are many reassuring developments. A new government is in place. Little girls dressed neatly in black and white now march confidently to school. Women once banned form working under the Taliban are now back on the job. Kabul marketplaces are chock-full of people and brightly painted business placards promoting everything from beauty shops to computer-training courses.

But for every step forward, there are an immense number of hurdles that must be overcome. The war against the Taliban was won quickly and easily; winning the peace in Afghanistan has proven to be a more formidable task. Twenty-three years of war has devastated this country at every level. Many parts of Afghanistan still stagger from extreme poverty and devastation; widows shrouded in tattered burkas crowd in front of aid agencies waiting for hand-outs of basic food items; roads throughout the country are checkered with red rocks, employed as menacing warning of landmines, and the humanitarian situation continues to remain fragile in many areas.

At times, it is difficult to discern where Afghanistan falls in the lines delineating war and peace. The dismantling of the despotic Taliban regime has also meant the dissolution of security. Warlords and corrupt commanders continue to hold whole communities hostage to the rule of the gun. They spread a blanket of obstacles to every effort undertaken.

There have been attacks on girls’ schools in various parts of the country, and with the exception of Kabul women continue to limit their activities in public life due to cultural constraints as well as increasing security concerns. Fighting and skirmishes between factional warlords serve as daily reminders that their fears are not ill-founded. In the weeks coinciding with the start of the war in Iraq, Afghanistan was rocked by an upsurge of violent activities staged by extremist forces.

These challenges continue to cast a dark shadow over the messy reality of peace-building in Afghanistan. Amidst looming security threats, the government is slowly making progress in the laborious and daunting work of state-building, simultaneously establishing the national army and police force, drafting a new constitution, preparing for the 2004 elections, building up the country’s shattered infrastructure, and developing an economy that can sustain the people.

The groundwork for turning this war-torn country into a governable state has been freshly laid. But every effort toward this end is dependent on resources and sustained investment from the international community. In the absence of this assistance and a long-term commitment from the international community, the peace process is doomed to fail. This grim reality weights heavily upon the people as the international spotlight shifts from Afghanistan to Iraq.

The United States and the rest of the international community have repeatedly provided reassurances that they will stay for the long haul. But Afghans remain cynical from bitter memories of the past, when the international community abandoned Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The resulting power vacuum transformed the promise of peace into a deadly civil war. The United States helped Afghanistan defeat the Soviet Union through 10 years of a brutal war, but they lost the peace within a matter of months. Perhaps the deadliest consequence of this tragedy was the entrenchment of extremists from throughout the region in Afghanistan. They have transformed pockets of this nation in a breeding ground for terrorism.

Transistor radios pressed to their ears, Afghans listened to the sounds of war in Iraq and waited, wondering if the rest of the world will remember—this time—that winning the war against terrorism will require winning the peace in Afghanistan.

Rina Amiri is a political affairs officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and a member of Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace.

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