‘INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL’

Afghanistan’s Finance Minister Now Drives an Uber in D.C.

Khalid Payenda oversaw a $6 billion budget before the fall of his homeland to the Taliban.

The finance minister of Afghanistan before the Taliban took over the country is now driving an Uber in Washington to support his family. Khalid Payenda oversaw a $6 billion budget in his homeland but fled as the country teetered on the verge of collapse. Now the father of four has joined the gig economy and tells The Washington Post, “I feel incredibly grateful for it. It means I don’t have to be desperate.” Payenda is also co-teaching a course at Georgetown University and occasionally speaking at think-tanks as he copes with a sense of rootlessness and failure. “Right now, I don’t have any place,” he said. “I don’t belong here, and I don’t belong there. It’s a very empty feeling.”