When the muezzin calls to prayer in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, life comes to a standstill. Men, both young and old, head for one of the many mosques. But they don't only go to pray; they also go to meet and exchange information. These days, people are talking mostly about the conference on Afghanistan that kicks off next week in Bonn, Germany.

Sayed Shah, a young man from Kandahar, says this conference is just as important as the first one that took place 10 years ago. "That was about the deployment of foreign troops to Afghanistan. Now, when the troops are due to withdraw, we want to know what is going to happen to our country."　

The people of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, are worried the Islamists will return. Many fear a civil war between the supporters of the powerful warlords and the Taliban could break out. They know that neither the Afghan police nor the country's army are capable of ensuring stability and security on their own. That is why everyone is eager to find out what will happen when the international troops withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014.　

Women's rights

　

Palwasha from Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan, where around 3,500 German soldiers are currently deployed, is a housewife and the mother of two. She has the same fears as her compatriots in the south. But the 28-year-old also worries that women will be left behind.

"I only hope that the little freedom that women in Afghanistan have fought for and won over the past few years is not lost. Everyone knows that many women are the main breadwinners in their families. They must not be kept locked up in their homes ever again."　

The international community and the Afghan government hope that peace negotiations with the Taliban will help resolve the situation. Palwasha believes that these would be a good start but that women's rights should not be ignored.

The Taliban banned women from working or being educated during their regime, which lasted from 1995 to 2001. On top of that women were only allowed to leave the house if they were accompanied by a male relative. 　

Civil war　

Nasir Dehqan, a teacher from Heart in western Afghanistan, has terrible memories of the Taliban's rule and the civil war at the beginning of the 1990s, when the mujahedin who had fought against the Russian occupation started fighting for power in Afghanistan. Many cities, especially the capital Kabul, were completely destroyed as a result.　

Nasir Dehqan wants to not only remind the international community of its promise of peace and democracy, but to demand that it be kept. "Many powerful world leaders will be meeting in Bonn. I hope they realize that not all of the goals, which were set for Afghanistan, have been reached. I hope they take the simple people in Afghanistan into consideration and don't desert us."　

War has raged in Afghanistan for over 30 years. "What keeps us alive is our hope for a better future," says Nasir Dehqan. And although he insists people do not expect the rest of the world to solve their problems, he fears Afghanistan won’t have much of a future without international support.　

Author: Ratbil Shamil / sb
Editor: Anne Thomas