Local politicians in contested provinces across Afghanistan told us that as violence has increased, fewer and fewer people are visiting government offices to lodge complaints, instead they are increasingly turning to the Taliban... https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/spike-in-violence-fills-void-in-afghanistan-during-peace-talks-delay/2020/08/09/97a251fc-d3fd-11ea-826b-cc394d824e35_story.html

It may seem like a subtle shift, but these officials and civilians we spoke to in Wardak, say they believe it puts Taliban leaders in a stronger position once they sit down with the Afghan government in Doha...

Those talks are expected to redistribute power across Afghanistan and determine what kind of government will control the country. So, an undermined Afghan government negotiating team suggests less hope for the preservation of civil and human rights...

Just yesterday @US4AfghanPeace said the U.S. seeks a "unified... democratic Afghanistan," and many Afghans in government-controlled parts of the country were hopeful for that kind of post-peace Afghanistan as well...

But as another local politician told us, ever since the text of the U.S.-Taliban peace deal was made public: “Now people think it’s inevitable the Taliban will take complete control,” due to the delay in talks, the uptick in violence and the legitimacy the deal gave the militants

The people in our story obviously do not speak for all Afghans, but we decided to highlight these voices from parts of the country that are normally hard to reach because here in Kabul it feels like they're often left out of the conversation.