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AFGHAN psychiatrist Nader Alemi spent many years counselling militants struggling with the effects of war.
He was even summoned to see the second-in-command to the group’s spiritual leader, Dr Alemi told the BBC World Service’s Outlook radio show.
Mullah Akhtar was hearing voices and screaming in his sleep, suffering from delusions and not recognising those around him.
“This man had been on the front line for goodness knows how long, and seen goodness knows how many people killed in front of him,” said Dr Alemi.
“All those explosions and screams may still have been echoing in his head, even sitting in the comfort of his office.”
Others would visit Dr Alemi for depression or anxiety, and he would offer them counselling or medicine to ease their symptoms.
Psychiatrist to the Taliban
Psychiatrist to the Taliban
He even met many Taliban members who were suicidal, but could not take their own lives because it is against the Islamic faith.
Young men would tell him the “turmoil” in their minds came from being away from their families and living in a state of constant uncertainty about the future.
“Everything was in the hands of their commanders,” said Dr Alemi.
“Sometimes they would weep and I would comfort them.”
The psychiatrist said word about him spread around the Taliban during the late 1990s, after the group captured his city, Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.
EDS NOTE THE PHOTOGRAPHER IS ON A TRIP SPONSORED BY THE TALIBAN. Military bombing attacks on Afghanistan in response to terr...
The psychiatrist said he met Taliban soldiers who were depressed, delusional and even suicidal. Source: AP
Dr Alemi was popular with troubled extremists because he was one of the few psychiatrists who could speak Pashto, the most common language among the Taliban.
They would often come to visit him in groups, he said, and while he did not agree with their beliefs, he was still willing to “treat them like human beings”, just as he would with any patient.
But looking after high-ranking Taliban officials had its problems. Patients he wanted to see regularly would leave on months-long missions.
He would then be visited by their wives and daughters, who were missing their family members and frightened for them.
Between 1998 and 2001, Dr Alemi thinks he consulted thousands of Taliban members.
More than 15 years later, he still treats Afghans affected by the trauma of conflict.
He was even summoned to see the second-in-command to the group’s spiritual leader, Dr Alemi told the BBC World Service’s Outlook radio show.
Mullah Akhtar was hearing voices and screaming in his sleep, suffering from delusions and not recognising those around him.
“This man had been on the front line for goodness knows how long, and seen goodness knows how many people killed in front of him,” said Dr Alemi.
“All those explosions and screams may still have been echoing in his head, even sitting in the comfort of his office.”
Others would visit Dr Alemi for depression or anxiety, and he would offer them counselling or medicine to ease their symptoms.
Psychiatrist to the Taliban
Psychiatrist to the Taliban
He even met many Taliban members who were suicidal, but could not take their own lives because it is against the Islamic faith.
Young men would tell him the “turmoil” in their minds came from being away from their families and living in a state of constant uncertainty about the future.
“Everything was in the hands of their commanders,” said Dr Alemi.
“Sometimes they would weep and I would comfort them.”
The psychiatrist said word about him spread around the Taliban during the late 1990s, after the group captured his city, Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.
EDS NOTE THE PHOTOGRAPHER IS ON A TRIP SPONSORED BY THE TALIBAN. Military bombing attacks on Afghanistan in response to terr...
The psychiatrist said he met Taliban soldiers who were depressed, delusional and even suicidal. Source: AP
Dr Alemi was popular with troubled extremists because he was one of the few psychiatrists who could speak Pashto, the most common language among the Taliban.
They would often come to visit him in groups, he said, and while he did not agree with their beliefs, he was still willing to “treat them like human beings”, just as he would with any patient.
But looking after high-ranking Taliban officials had its problems. Patients he wanted to see regularly would leave on months-long missions.
He would then be visited by their wives and daughters, who were missing their family members and frightened for them.
Between 1998 and 2001, Dr Alemi thinks he consulted thousands of Taliban members.
More than 15 years later, he still treats Afghans affected by the trauma of conflict.
