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Driven from his home in Afghanistan, a Pasco man describes the iron reign of the Muslim fundamentalists of the Taleban.
By TAMARA LUSH
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 14, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Wasef Bakhtari hasn't been in his homeland, Afghanistan, for five years. He longs to go back.
"Every moment, I miss my country," he said.
But this week, he understands the ire many Americans feel against his country.
Bakhtari, who now lives in New Port Richey, blames many of Afghanistan's problems on the ruling Taleban government and its ties to accused terrorist Osama bin Laden.
"The absolute majority of the Afghanistan people hate Osama bin Laden and hate extremists," Bakhtari said. "But they can't say anything against them."
A 62-year-old former Kabul University professor, Bakhtari is a writer and a supporter of a free press. The Taleban, he said, was offended by his work. He left Afghanistan five years ago because he says he was in danger of being jailed or killed.
He fled to Pakistan but left when Islamic purists -- the Taleban -- gained a foothold in that country, too.
Bakhtari and his wife, Soriya, were resettled in New Port Richey two weeks ago with the help of the international aid organizations World Relief and the United Nations Committee on Refugees.
Bakhtari visited the United States once before, in 1976, when he studied at Columbia University in New York. At Kabul University, Bakhtari taught literature. He also is a published poet and worked at a magazine in Afghanistan several years ago.
On Tuesday morning, Bakhtari turned on the small television set in his living room. Like everyone else, he and his wife were horrified by the images.
"Really, we are very deeply sad," he said. "It was very difficult for me to sleep. I think it is the work of extremists, the work of fundamentalists."
When news commentators and government authorities started to mention bin Laden in connection with the attacks on New York and Washington, Bakhtari's sadness grew.
"I feel shame," he said. "Because some people in the U.S. think Osama bin Ladin is from Afghanistan. He is not from Afghanistan, he is from Saudi Arabia . . . I think he has very, very common ideas of Taleban."
Bin Laden, a major suspect in Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, dropped out of sight in August 1998, when the United States fired cruise missiles into eastern Afghanistan following the terrorist bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.
This week, Taleban leaders condemned Tuesday's attacks, and many Afghan citizens are expressing outrage, according to the Associated Press.
"The majority of the people of Afghanistan hate Taleban and don't think like Taleban," he said from his New Port Richey apartment. "Afghanistan is like a great jail and all of the people of Afghanistan are like prisoners."