After the Taliban takeover, Afghans in Canada call on Ottawa not to let their country, families be forgotten

Thousands of delicate purple blooms sit bathed in sunlight against a background of towering jagged slopes in the Afghan province of Herat, their distinct fragrance gently sweetening the air as they await their fate.

Inside, each contains three fragile red threads, carefully hand-plucked to produce the world's most expensive spice: saffron.

But this year, as harvest season approaches, the fate of the flowers, picked almost exclusively by women farmers, is in the hands of the Taliban, who will decide if they will be allowed to gather the blooms, if they'll be picked at all or left to rot.

For Nazaneen Qauomi, it's as if the blossoms themselves symbolize the future not only for the women but for all of Afghanistan.

After immigrating to Canada in 2014, Qauomi recently visited her home country to create a social entrepreneurship program with a group of women farmers meant to provide them with microloans to eventually launch their own businesses.

"Saffron was the biggest hope they had," Qauomi told CBC News from her Toronto home.

But everything changed when the Taliban swiftly took over as the U.S. made its exit from the country in August.Afghans who escaped their rule decades earlier watched as the country seemed to be plunged back in time virtually overnight.

"It was a shared pain that we all felt and a repeated history that we all saw," said Qauomi. "Especially for my mom, it wasn't easy watching the news, and again repeating all their history of how we used to escape from city to city, how we were afraid of the bombs."

Now, two months after that familiar reality so many tried to forget has once again set in, Afghans like Qauomi fear that as the international community threatens tosidelinethe Taliban for human rights violations, ordinary Afghans, including women and minorities, will sufferin the process. They are pleading with the world and Canada in particular not to allow their country and their loved ones still there to be forgotten.

'How are they going to survive?'

"We need the world's attention for Afghanistan not only thinking about what Afghan women should wear but thinking about the biggest problems that people are facing and those are poverty, lack of access to education, lack of access to health centres," said Qauomi.

"All the women who lost their jobs, who are the breadwinners. How are they going to survive?"

WATCH |Nazaneen Qauomi worries for Afghan women who were their family's breadwinners:

How will they survive?: Entrepreneur Nazaneen Qauomi worries for Afghan women who were their familys breadwinners before the Taliban takeover

3 years ago

Duration 1:42

Before the Taliban took hold of Afghanistan, social entrepreneur Nazaneen Qauomi met with women saffron farmers to set up a partnership to help empower them to start their own businesses. Now the future of the saffron fields is in the hands of the Taliban, who will decide if the women will be allowed to pick them, or if theyll be picked at all.

Rustam, a Canadian citizen, narrowly escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban took over.

He'd travelled to Kabul to visit his father dying from COVID-19 just before the Taliban moved in. But now he fears for his brother left behind and other human rights defenders like him who he says are likely to be targeted by the Taliban.

CBC News has agreed to identify Rustam only by his first name out of concerns for the safety of his brother, who has a wife and three childrenbut remains stuck in Afghanistan despite working on projects funded by the Canadian government.

"There are a lot of people that have contributed immensely to Canadian projects like my brother but unfortunately they're stuck in the pipeline. These people are highly educated people and they're worried about their future, what will happen to their kids," Rustam said.

"I was one of the lucky ones."

A chance encounter

Having buried his father, Rustam was due to fly back to Canada on Aug. 18. But just days earlier, the Taliban had taken control of Hamid Karzai Airport.

Rustam tried twice unsuccessfully to reach the airport gate amid tear gas and bullets, but gave up after hours of waiting, worried for the wellbeing of his mother and wife who had secured the paperwork to join him in Canada.

On his third attempt, it was the same. TheBaron Hotelgate, where the Canadian government had told him to show up, was flooded with people. The family was going to turn backwhen a boy, around 15 years old, seemingly helping people navigate the area for a small fee, asked where he wanted to go.

WATCH | He escaped the Taliban. Now he's calling on Canada to bring overthose who assisted it:

I was one of the lucky ones: After narrowly escaping the Taliban, hes imploring Canada to help bring over human rights defenders at risk

3 years ago

Duration 4:15

Canadian citizen Rustam narrowly escaped Afghanistan after a chance encounter at the Taliban-controlled airport with a young boy, who he credits with saving his life. Now hes calling on the federal government to do more to bring over human rights defenders still trapped in the country, like his brother, before its too late.

Rustam was hesitant. It was impossible to know whom to trust. He told the boy he needed to reach Canadian soldiers and gave him $5. The boy told him to follow and together, they wove through the crowds to another gate where he was able to speak directly to an American soldierwho connected him with the Canadians.

Days later, the crowded sewage canal near Abbey gatethat he, his mother and wife trudged through to make it to safety was blown up in a suicide bombing. Rustam has no idea if the boy who saved his life survived.

"That kid, actually, he's probably the reason I'm here," he told CBC News. "It was because of him that I was able to find a way I hope he is OK."

'They are at risk because of me'

Sediqa Nawrozian never intended to leave Afghanistan.

The women's rights activist with a master's degree in public law hadpublished several books back home.Amember of the Shi'a minority, she had been in Halifax for a conference on women's leadership in 2016when her brother called and told hernot to come home.

The Taliban had tracked down her address and showed up asking for her, threatening her family, he told her. Overnight, Nawrozian became a refugee, separated from her family and facing an uphill climb to find work in a country where she had no experience and where her credentials might not be recognized.

WATCH: Sediqa Nawrozian ondangers women activists and minorities face inAfghanistan:

Womens activist Sediqa Nawrozian on becoming a refugee overnight and the dangers minorities like her family face in Afghanistan

3 years ago

Duration 2:28

A women's rights activist with a master's degree in public law who published several books back home, Nawrozian, a member of the Shi'a minority, had been in Halifax for a conference on women's leadership in 2016, when her brother called telling her not to come home after the Taliban paid a visit to her family.

In the years since, Nawrozian, now a Canadian citizen, has acquired numerous certificates but has had trouble finding work in her field of expertise, with COVID-19 making the task that much harder. For now, she volunteers to teach women in Toronto's Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park neighbourhoods to sew as she tries to secure paperwork for her family to flee.

"I'm thinking about my family because they are at risk because of me and I'm here now. What happens with them?" Nawrozian said.

"Not just my family. All the minority community in Afghanistan is at risk, all the families that their daughters, their wives, their members work for the women's rights, work for the human rights, against the Taliban. All those families are now at risk. They don't know what will happen for them in the future. That's my concern."

'Talking doesn't mean being a friend'

Mohammad Hashim Nazarwal had been in Afghanistan for his mother's funeral when the Taliban seemed to be encroaching on Kabul. No one seriously believed the capital would be taken, but Nazarwal remembers the day he realized the U.S. wasn't going to stop them.

Afghan security forces "left their humvees on the road, changed their clothes, left their uniforms and took taxis home," he told CBC News.

WATCH I Mohammad Hashim Nazarwal on why the time for Canada to talk to the Taliban is now:

Talking doesnt mean being a friend: Mohammad Hashim Nazarwal on why Canada must begin dialogue with the Taliban

3 years ago

Duration 2:09

Mohammad Hashim Nazarwal had flown to Afghanistan for his mother's funeral when the Taliban seemed to be encroaching on Kabul. He remembers the day he realized the U.S. wasn't going to stop them and says Canada and countries who supported the war in Afghanistan have an obligation to act as the country faces disaster.

"The whole Afghanistan operation was a failure," Nazarwal said after returning to Toronto. "Lives are lost, resources are lost the common guy never benefited."

Still, he said, for the U.S. to leave as suddenly as it did has meant ordinary Afghans are being punished for not stopping the Taliban when even foreign forces failed to quell them.

What's needed now, he said, is dialogue with the Taliban.

In a statement to CBC News, Global Affairs Canada said it "remains committed to Afghanistan" and has announced an additional $50 million in humanitarian assistance since Aug. 26 for Afghanistan and neighbouring countries on top of the $27.3 million already allocated for Afghanistan this year.

"If the Taliban choose to ignore fundamental human rights the rights of women, girls, and minority groups they should expect international isolation," the statement said.

But talking doesn't mean recognition, saidNazarwal. "Talking doesn't mean being a friend. There should be a channel to dialogue."

"It's such a passive policy only to sit until America comes on this is against democratic laws, it is harming the Canadian policy, prestige, there is a responsibility for the Canadian government to act.

"This is the beginning of tragedy. If the Canadian government doesn't pay attention to this, tomorrow it will be [too] late. The same mistakes will be repeated in another form."