François Picard is pleased to welcome Silvia Boccardi, freelance journalist based in Rome. Nearly five years after the Taliban's return to power, Afghanistan occupies an uneasy position in international politics. As European governments increasingly seek practical engagement with the authorities in Kabul, questions persist over whether diplomatic contact can alleviate humanitarian suffering without conferring legitimacy upon a regime whose restrictions on women and civil liberties remain widely condemned.
Drawing on recent field reporting from Kabul, Lashkar Gah, and northern Afghanistan, Silvia Boccardi offers a nuanced portrait of a country transformed by the end of war yet burdened by deep economic collapse, social fragmentation, and profound uncertainty. Her observations challenge both optimistic narratives of stability and simplistic depictions of repression, revealing instead a complex reality where security has improved, but opportunity has vanished; where women continue to work and resist, yet face an increasingly constrained future; and where ordinary Afghans navigate daily life under conditions that remain both precarious and politically fraught.
