Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of my research and experiences in Afghanistan as a reflective foundation for my research team's attempts to assist our Afghan colleagues and friends evacuate from in August 2021 (due to the resurgence of the Taliban regime and United States (US) military withdrawal from the country). I focus on this situation in an effort to draw out some of the challenges associated with academic fieldwork and feminist activism. This chapter does not examine a specific social movement or form of feminist activism. Rather I reflect on my relationships with fellow academics, and the individuals and communities that facilitated our research. I consider the opportunities and difficulties associated with challenging prevailing public discourse about people and places through teaching, public talks, and our attempts to influence political action and policy. Additionally, through a brief overview of my 20 years of research on/ in Afghanistan, I discuss the limitations of academic privilege and limited ability to assist Afghans and effectively navigate through the multiple layers and intricacies of international geopolitics and state bureaucracy.

I begin this chapter with an historical overview of geopolitical conflict in contemporary Afghanistan, followed by a discussion of research and activism. The final section of this chapter focuses my attempts to help Afghan friend and colleagues evacuate along with a few volunteers, and my long-term research collaborator, Dr Rachel Lehr (who worked with me as a postdoctoral researcher on two separate projects and with whom I have co-authored a book on Afghanistan and several articles). I am not including the names of the other volunteers upon request. The chapter concludes with my reflections and analyses of these events.

Historical overview of conflict in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has experienced several waves of international economic, political, and military interventions throughout the 20th century and first two decades of the 21st century. The government of Afghanistan has changed several times since the early 1970s. The regularity of government transitions in Afghanistan have become a punch line of an often repeated joke: ‘In Afghanistan you go to bed, and wake up to a new regime’ (for more information on Afghan humour see Fluri, 2019, and Shrestha and Fluri, 2021).

For much of the 20th century, Afghanistan's government was a constitutional monarchy with Mohmmad Zahir Shah as the head of state.