Nearly 25 years after the U.S. invasion, Afghanistan is again under Taliban rule
As the 25th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan approaches, NPR journalists have returned to Kabul to examine how Afghans, now living again under Taliban rule, are coping with the legacy of the 20-year war.
Nearly a quarter century has passed since the United States launched its military intervention in Afghanistan, a conflict that stretched on for two decades and left a deep mark on the country and its place in the world. Marking that approaching anniversary, NPR has sent a reporting team back to Kabul to assess, firsthand, what Afghanistan looks like today.
A return to Taliban governance
Afghanistan is once again governed by the Taliban, and daily life for its people now looks markedly different from the conditions that prevailed during the long period of foreign military presence. The NPR report focuses on how ordinary Afghans are experiencing this shift — from decades of war and occupation to a new reality under Taliban rule.
The war's lasting imprint
The reporting aims to illustrate the long-term impact of the war and its aftermath on the people who lived through it directly. The 20-year conflict touched entire generations, and its consequences remain visible in everyday life, from the broader social order down to the personal experiences shaped by prolonged war.
The project is part of a wider NPR effort to present the other side of the story that began in 2001 — not through the lens of foreign observers or policymakers, but through the eyes of Afghans themselves, describing how they remember and continue to live with what happened. The report offers a rare window into a country that appears less frequently in international headlines these days, even though the daily reality of its population remains, in large part, defined by those two decades of war and by what has followed since.
