An Afghan woman who fled the Taliban takeover of her country more than 20 years ago and made Australia her home fears today's violence in her homeland is worse.
Farkhondeh Akbari left Afghanistan in 1998 as a child with her family when the Taliban seized power. She lived in refugee camps before coming to Australia on a humanitarian visa.
Ms Akbari, a postgraduate student at the Australian National University in Canberra, told nine.com.au the Taliban are feeling increasingly confident of regaining power after the withdrawal of US and other international troops.
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"They are feeling emboldened and they have a sense of victory. They are feeling like 'we have beaten a superpower,'" Ms Akbari said.
But she fears the new freedoms gained by Afghans over the past 20 years after the Taliban were removed from power by US and international forces in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will make today's conflict more bloody.
Ms Akbari, a member of the minority Hazari group, said many Afghans will forcibly resist the return of Taliban rule.
"More Afghan people have been exposed to the world, more people went abroad to get vaccinated, they are used to holding people to account.
"Women have found a voice now and there is some sort of democracy and freedom experienced by the people. So we have changed as people and as a generation."
Despite the pullout of international forces and setbacks by the Afghan army, Ms Akbari said ordinary people were standing up to the Taliban.
"I think that's something that we are afraid of - that it will take [the conflict] to another level, because people will resist stronger or harder and they will face more violence because of it," she said.
That has been highlighted by civilian militias taking up arms against the Taliban as well as groups raised by regional warlords.
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Ms Akbari, who studied the Taliban peace talks for her PhD, says the militant group is unwilling to compromise with the Afghan government it is fighting.
"The Taliban are not compromising on anything because they already got what they wanted from the US; a timetable for withdrawal and international legitimacy," she said.
"They only come to the negotiating table when they have gained the upper hand."
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Ms Akbari's goal was to ultimately return to Afghanistan and use her expertise to improve her homeland.
But recent Taliban violence against the Hazari people and other minority groups has made it unsafe.
"People like me may not be welcome ... but the struggle for human rights, freedom, will continue."
