Come Back to Afghanistan

Come Back to Afghanistan (2005) is an autobiography by the Afghan-American writer and entrepreneur Said Hyder Akbar, co-written by the American journalist Susan Burton. The expansion of a story Akbar told in two acclaimed This American Life documentaries, Come Back to Afghanistan chronicles Akbar’s decision as a teenager in an affluent California suburb to spend three years in Afghanistan, the birthplace of his parents, in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the American War in Afghanistan. According to Kirkus Reviews, the book is "an exceedingly, commendably unique eyewitness account of a country in transition, told by a charming young narrator."

Though born in Peshawar, Pakistan, to Afghan parents, Akbar and his family relocated to California when he was only two years old. His father, Said Fazal Akbar, ran a successful hip-hop clothing store that allowed the family to live a comfortable lifestyle in the suburbs. Hyder's extended family included a number of prominent Afghan politicians including Said Shamsoudin Majroh, one of the architects of Afghanistan's 1964 constitution, and Said Bahaoudin Majroh, a former governor in Afghanistan and one of the country's leading intellectuals.

In 2001, much of Afghanistan was under the control of the Taliban, an extremist Sunni Islamic fundamentalist group. In the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Taliban provides a safe harbor for Osama bin Laden, the chief architect of the attacks. When the Taliban refuses to turn him over, the United States, under President George W. Bush, launches an invasion of Afghanistan. By December 2001, the Taliban are removed from formal power and an interim government is installed by the United States' anti-Taliban allies in Afghanistan, electing Hamid Karzai as its new leader. In January, the following year, Karzai gives a speech at Georgetown University urging Afghan-Americans to move back to Afghanistan in support of the new government. Fazal, heeding Karzai's call, sells his business, returning to his home country to participate in the new government and the post-Taliban transition. Curious about his family's roots, the teenaged Akbar takes his senior exams early, skips his school prom, and follows his father to Afghanistan.



At his father's instruction, Akbar brings him dress socks, Tylenol PM, Krazy-Glue, and other hard-to-find items in Afghanistan. When he arrives at the airport in Kabul, Akbar characterizes it as a "dump"; he is shocked by the bombed-out airplanes strewn all over unused runways. One of the first formal political events Akbar attends is the Loya Jirga, a council of tribal representatives who gather in Kabul to elect the president. Akbar is struck by the evident corruption on display, as warlords with connections to the opium trade jockey for political power. Akbar witnesses delegates who dare to speak out against the warlords forcibly removed and thrown in jail for the duration of the council. He also becomes disillusioned with Karzai, a colleague of his father whom he once respected. Akbar watches with disappointment as Karzai falls immediately under the influence of "warlords, power brokers, and politicians who trailed Karzai like groupies."

In 2003, Karzai appoints Fazal to the role of governor of the remote rural province of Kunal. While it was hard enough to obtain necessities living in the big city of Kabul, compared to Kunal, Kabul was a paradise. Akbar calls the area "a remote tribal area with scant electricity, ample rocket fire and with no paved roads." Most of the residents there are poor farmers who live in mud huts. In the nearby village of Kerela, there are huge mounds where 1,000 men were buried after being massacred in the 1980s by Soviet troops and their allies in the Afghan government.

At one point, Akbar meets a young Afghan Abdul Wali whom the American government accuses of terrorism. Although Wali assures Akbar he is innocent—and Akbar believes him—the man is terrified of what will happen to him if he turns himself in to the Americans. Akbar and Fazal both urge Wali to turn himself in, assuring him that he will be not be mistreated. Akbar accompanies Wali to the interrogation, serving as a translator for David Passaro, a former Special Forces soldier who, despite having no background in interrogation, was hired by the CIA to interrogate terrorism suspects. Disturbed by Passaro's rage and aggressiveness, Akbar refuses to continue translating. Later, Akbar learns that Wali died in custody. Only after Akbar's book was published was the full story of Wali's death revealed: Passaro viciously beat Wali who died from his injuries. Passaro was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to eight years in prison.



After his final summer in Afghanistan in 2005, Akbar reflects on everything he saw in the country. He laments the United States' willingness to spend a billion dollars a month on the war on terror while refusing to provide people in places like Kunar with simple necessities. Greatly angered by President Bush's habit of framing the war in Afghanistan as a success, Akbar wonders how Afghanistan could possibly be a success when the life expectancy there is 42, women are forced to wear burkas whether they want to or not, and the people are "desperately poor, at the mercy of warlords, terrorists, opium, the country's carnivorous neighbors."

Come Back to Afghanistan is a harrowing firsthand account of the messy and violent transition following September 11 and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.