Wollongong refugee fears Taliban has just started its 'campaign of pain' against Afghanistan

So says Nabi Zaher, who has seen first hand the brutality the Taliban is capable of inflicting.

That's one of the reasons he fled Afghanistan to make a new home in Wollongong, south of Sydney.

But Mr Zaher couldn't help but feel "some guilt" over the last couple of days as he watched through various news services, the Taliban once again cause "fear and destruction" to the Afghani population.

And he fears a "propaganda savvy" Taliban has just started its "campaign of pain".

"At the moment they're busy being uncivilised, taking photos in the presidential palace. I think the tragedy has not started yet to be frank," Mr Zaher said.

"What we see at the moment is only a takeover and it is probably the smoothest part of this unfortunate event.

"I think once they establish themselves, once the dust settles down, I think the tragedy will start then, and it will take probably decades."

Mr Zaher has called Wollongong home since he fled Afghanistan in 2010.

He now lives in Kembla Grange with his wife and four children. Since 2014 Mr Zaher has also been a University of Wollongong business lecturer.

"Work has been busy over the last few days but my wife has been on the phone constantly trying to find out how our family members and friends are coping," he said.

"Fortunately two of my three sisters fled to Pakistan just before all the trouble started, but they are still not safe.

"It is heartbreaking and devastating seeing what is happening.

"But above all it is a monumental failure on the part of everyone involved in the process, including myself.

"The international community has a lot to answer for. They have let the Afghani people down because of the way they mismanaged this process and withdrew from Afghanistan and left.

"There is a sense of abandonment and despair at the moment.

"I feel for those families who have lost loved ones. Just in the last few days thousands and thousands of Afghans lost their lives because they were encouraged to fight against the Taliban without knowing their president had been planning to escape.

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"The international community had a lot of leverages but we never tried to leverage them effectively.

"We did not understand our local partners, we chose the wrong people on the ground and worse of all we supported structures which were already there, - institutional discrimination, prejudice and rampant corruption.

"The West supported [president] Ashraf Ghani, who himself backed the rampant corruption around the country...and that's why we see the takeover without firing a single bullet, not even in Kabul.

"We left, we gave everything away. It is so humiliating for the international community."

Before leaving for Australia, Mr Zaher worked with international organisations, the Afghanistan parliament and politicians to set up provincial councils and free elections.

Over the years there has been more improvements in laws, especially for women and working towards a free media.

"Seeing all of that melt away in front of your eyes is heartbreaking," Mr Zaher said.

"The Taliban is as dangerous as they have always been. In terms of their ideology, in terms of their barbaric approach, in terms of the very obvious problems and challenges that they have adapting to their civilised world , those things have not changed.

"This is a big worry, especially for women. Women have already been targetted by the Taliban in northern Kabul and Herat.

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"Women have been stopped walking in the street and the Taliban refused to meet with a group of female university teachers.

"They are the first victims, then the Taliban will attack civil society in general, including the media, minorities and people who think differently from them."

Fellow UOW academic Theo Farrell, a former advisor to international military commanders in Afghanistan, who has also been involved with talks with senior Taliban figures, also fears women's rights will be eroded to 'medieval times"..

"It is going to be very challenging indeed and there's nothing the international community can do about that," he said.