We Don’t Sleep Anymore: Nights of Fear in Kabul

In many parts of the world, night is a time for rest. A time when people feel safe in their homes, when families gather and sleep peacefully.

But here in Kabul, night has become something else.

We don’t sleep anymore.

Every sound feels like a warning. Every silence feels like something is about to happen. The sky, once calm and beautiful, now carries fear. The distant echo of aircraft, the sudden noise that breaks the quiet, it all makes the heart race.

Children wake up in fear. Mothers hold them tightly, trying to comfort them while hiding their own anxiety. Fathers stay awake longer than they should, listening, watching, waiting.

There are no shelters. No systems to protect civilians. No place to run when fear comes from above.

People here are not part of any conflict. They are not soldiers. They are ordinary individuals trying to survive, to live, to hope.

But fear doesn’t ask who you are.

It comes anyway.

And the hardest part is not just the danger, but the uncertainty. Not knowing if the next night will be peaceful or filled with terror.

We live one night at a time.

And still, we hope.

Because hope is the only thing no one can take from us.