Khaled Hosseini: Afghanistan gains must not be lost

Khaled Hosseini

There are today two main story lines when it comes to Afghanistan: the scheduled pullout of the U.S. troops in 2014, and what a hopeless cause the country has turned out to be.

The widely accepted impression is that, for all the resources poured into Afghanistan, little of value has been achieved on the ground. The implication is that continued engagement in the country's future will only lead to disappointment. Though this view is, at least on the surface, understandable, it does not depict a full picture of the reality.

In fact, a great deal has been achieved in Afghanistan, some of it quite dramatic. To wit: More than 8 million children are enrolled in schools today, of whom 2.6 million are girls, as compared with 2001 when less than 1 million children, overwhelmingly boys, attended school. Literacy rates are on the rise nationally and are estimated to grow to 60% by 2025 and 90% by 2040. The impact this will have on the country's potential for economic growth cannot be overstated.

Significant advances have been achieved in health care, with impressive drops in both maternal and under-age-five mortality rates, and a 50% drop in infant mortality rate. Average life expectancy, which had hovered in the 40s for decades, has climbed to over 60. The country boasts more than 1,800 health facilities today, or four times as many as it had in 2003. Vaccination programs have been underway and are sure to pay dividends in the years to come.

Visits to Afghanistan

On my visits to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2010, I have witnessed with each trip improved access to regular electricity and dramatic improvements in infrastructure and technology. As a goodwill envoy for the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and in commemoration for today's World Refugee Day, it is important to note that in the past decade, nearly 6 million refugees have voluntarily returned to Afghanistan. And hundreds of families torn apart by war are being reunited in their native land with a shared hope of rebuilding their lives.

Kabul is a fast modernizing, growing city with new schools, buildings and parks. Connections to the electrical grid have increased exponentially over the past decade. The country now has thousands of irrigation canal networks in rural areas and more than 7,000 kilometers of paved roads to facilitate trade and transport.

Progress for women

Afghans are increasingly connected via the Internet and telecommunication. I have seen, even in remote villages, peasants using cellphones. Indeed, 20 million Afghans today use cellphones, and a recent study showed that nearly half of women own a mobile phone. Urban women are back in the workforce and voting. Women occupy 27% of the seats of the lower house of the parliament, and Afghanistan has its first ever female district governor.

Do these improvements go as far and as deep as we all would like?

No.

Challenges remain

Big tests loom in Afghanistan, and all parties involved must remain sober about them. Even so, the accomplishments cannot be dismissed. They are an important foundation to build upon as the country prepares for presidential and parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Afghanistan is largely a nation of young people — 60% of the population is under the age of 20 — who are hopeful, energetic and increasingly eager and capable to engage with the world at large.

The advances they are enjoying must not be used as bargaining chips during peace negotiations with the insurgency, especially those advances related to women's rights.

In the coming weeks, as the Taliban sits down for peace talks with the U.S. and Afghanistan officials, it is imperative that this progress be respected and preserved. The negotiations must be inclusive and reflective of the young population's will and vision for the future, which does not include a return to power of the Taliban, for whom there is very little popular support in Afghanistan.

With the 2014 pullout looming, the international community and its Afghan partners must ensure that these painstakingly earned gains are preserved and built upon, so that Afghanistan can continue along the path that so many of us had envisioned for it back in 2001.

Khaled Hosseini is the author of the new novel And the Mountains Echoed. The Afghan-born American novelist and physician's two best-sellers are The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

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