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The grassroots protests that pitched Iran into political crisis serve as a reminder of the vital role that youth can play in leading a robust civil society. In neighboring Afghanistan, which will hold its own elections in less than a month, youth will choose not to engage despite their deep dissatisfaction with incompetent and corrupt governance.

Even at the American University of Afghanistan, where I teach international relations to students who constitute perhaps the country’s most politically aware demographic, apathy is in the air. Their desire for change is as palpable as ours was last November, but it is matched by pessimism toward their own power to influence Afghan politics.

For all the suspicion that fabrication of votes, bribing of election officials,...