A year on, the Taliban savor victory, while other Afghans pay the price

Kabul is awash in men and boys on rickety bicycles, because they can no longer afford the price of a bus ticket or a taxi. (Diaa Hadid/NPR)

PATAN KHEL, Afghanistan — "How beautiful is the spring of freedom!" exclaims elegant Pashto graffiti on a highway stop out of Kabul. The graffiti, in a Taliban stronghold, celebrates their forces' sweep into the Afghan capital in August 2021.

Now, a year later, the Taliban preside over a divided country with a battered economy, where hunger is rampant and human rights are assaulted; a country that aid groups fear has receded in the rearview mirror of the West.