The Afghan Digest
Dear Friends,
The Afghan Digest did not begin with AWA.
It had already been published for about two years when its original writing team approached us and asked if AWA would take it over.
At the time, TAD was primarily a daily security report focused on what was happening inside Afghanistan.
We said yes.
And as Afghanistan changed, The Afghan Digest changed with it.
What began as a daily security report evolved into the weekly publication we produce today, covering security, regional developments, U.S. immigration policy, forced returns, Taliban policies and abuses, border closures, embassy operations, court decisions, and the changing circumstances affecting Afghans seeking protection.
That evolution happened for a reason.
After August 2021, helping someone navigate an SIV case could no longer be separated from what was happening around them.
An applicant might understand every step of the immigration process but still need to know whether a border was open, whether an embassy was accepting case transfers, whether their family could legally remain in a third country, or whether they faced deportation back to Afghanistan while waiting.
For the people we serve, these aren't separate issues. They are part of the same reality.
Today, our team monitors Afghanistan and the region daily. We draw from government announcements, international and Afghan media, legal and humanitarian sources, regional reporting, and open-source intelligence.
But we don't simply collect what others report.
Information about events on the ground is verified before we report it. Our team includes experts with years of experience analyzing Afghanistan, and that expertise matters. History, geography, ethnic tensions, local dynamics, and the relationships between communities all provide context that can fundamentally change how an event should be understood.
A security incident in one province cannot always be understood the same way as a similar incident somewhere else. A development that appears isolated may have dimensions that aren't apparent in a headline. And information emerging from inside Afghanistan must be evaluated carefully before we consider it reliable enough to publish.
That is where analysis matters.
Our team sorts through the information, verifies what can be verified, brings local and regional knowledge to the analysis, and then determines what is significant enough to report.
TAD isn't simply telling readers what happened. We work to provide the context necessary to understand why it matters.
And sometimes, why it matters is very personal.
A border closure can determine whether an SIV applicant reaches an interview. A deportation policy can determine whether a family remains safe while waiting for a U.S. visa. A report of Taliban retribution carries a very different weight when the people being targeted once stood beside Americans and remain in Afghanistan today.
TAD also provides AWA with something increasingly important: a second way to reach Afghans left behind.
Our private Facebook community remains a vital connection to thousands of SIV applicants, but we cannot assume access will always remain available. If Facebook is restricted or blocked by the de facto authorities, The Afghan Digest gives us another established way to reach people with information they may need.
At the same time, TAD's audience has grown far beyond the community AWA originally served.
Today, The Afghan Digest is read by Afghan applicants and advocates, journalists, attorneys, veterans, policymakers, humanitarian organizations, and government, intelligence, and security professionals globally.
There is another part of TAD's mission that has become increasingly important to us.
We are creating a record.
Week after week, The Afghan Digest documents life under Taliban rule, including repression, restrictions on women and girls, forced returns, retribution against former government officials and U.S. partners, security incidents, and abuses that often receive little sustained international attention.
Five years after the evacuation, Afghanistan no longer commands the world's attention as it once did.
But what is happening there did not stop when the headlines did.
We cannot determine when the international community will again give Afghanistan the attention its people deserve.
But when it does, the record will be there.
That record matters.
It matters to the Afghan family trying to understand what is happening around them today. It matters to the journalist or advocate trying to understand a developing issue. It matters to policymakers and security professionals assessing Afghanistan from thousands of miles away.
And it will matter years from now, when people look back and ask what was happening during the years when much of the world had stopped watching.
The headlines moved on. The consequences did not.
Neither did we.
With gratitude,
The TAD Team
The Afghan Digest
Association of Wartime Allies
Check out The Afghan Digest and subscribe if you like what you see:
https://afghandigest.substack.com/p/the-week-of-august-3-9?r=1t5o1u