January 1994

In January 1994, the shifting allegiances of the Afghan civil war reached a critical turning point when the Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum abandoned his alliance with the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani and joined forces with the Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. This defection, which Rasheed reported to his household, dramatically escalated the conflict in Kabul, transforming the city into a battleground where rival Mujahideen factions fought for control with devastating consequences for civilians.

Causes and Background

Dostum, the flamboyant leader of the Junbish-i-Milli faction, had a well-known reputation for shifting allegiances. He had fought the Soviets in the 1980s alongside the Mujahideen, then defected to join Najibullah's communist puppet regime after the Soviet withdrawal, even earning a medal from Najibullah himself. He later defected once more to return to the Mujahideen's side, and for a time supported Massoud. By January 1994, however, Dostum switched sides again, joining Hekmatyar and taking up position near Bala Hissar, the old citadel walls that loomed over the city from the Koh-e-Shirdawaza mountains. Together, they fired on Massoud and Rabbani forces at the Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Palace.

What Happens

From either side of the Kabul River, the warring factions released rounds of artillery at each other. The streets became littered with bodies, glass, and crumpled chunks of metal. The violence was not limited to combatants; there was widespread looting, murder, and, increasingly, rape, which was used to intimidate civilians and reward militiamen. Mariam heard of women who were killing themselves out of fear of being raped, and of men who, in the name of honor, would kill their wives or daughters if they had been raped by the militia. The fighting forced even Rasheed to stay home for a week. He locked the door to the yard, set booby traps, locked the front door and barricaded it with the couch. He paced the house, smoking, peering out the window, cleaning his gun, loading and loading it again. Twice, he fired his weapon into the street, claiming he had seen someone trying to climb the wall. He reported that the Mujahideen were forcing young boys to join them at gunpoint, dragging them right off the streets, and that when soldiers from a rival militia captured these boys, they tortured them, electrocuting them or crushing their testicles with pliers, and then made the boys lead them to their homes to kill their fathers and rape their sisters and mothers.

Consequences and Aftermath

The escalation of fighting had a direct and terrifying impact on the household. Aziza shrieked at the thumping of mortars, and Mariam had to distract her by arranging grains of rice on the floor in the shape of a house or a rooster or a star, or by drawing elephants for her the way Jalil had shown her. Rasheed's behavior became more erratic and dangerous; he waved his gun over his head, declaring he would crush the balls of anyone who tried to break into his house. When Aziza flinched and crawled back to Mariam after he snapped at her, Mariam had no assurances to give her about fathers. Mariam was relieved when the fighting subsided, mostly because they no longer had to be cooped up with Rasheed and his sour temper, and because he had frightened her badly waving that loaded gun near Aziza. The constant threat of violence and the breakdown of order in the city reinforced the sense of entrapment and fear that defined the lives of Mariam and Laila under both the war and Rasheed's domestic tyranny.