Image Courtesy:theindianwire.com
National and international media alike are repeatedly playing visuals of panicked masses and heart-wrenching accounts of people to highlight the tragedy of the Afghans since the Taliban take over. As the Taliban gains power in the country, the media and other international human rights groups are calling upon governments to save the helpless people of Afghanistan.
However, posts on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook suggest that while eager to leave the country, Afghans are yet to be muzzled completely. Individuals have shared letters, video clippings and video messages describing the crisis in Afghanistan.
This is heartbreaking?.
Afghan girls beg American soldiers at Kabul airport to save them from what they know is coming…. #Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/mClAaBwNle
— Fazila Baloch?☀️ (@IFazilaBaloch) August 18, 2021
Women are trying to escape from the unknown fate of taliban rule.. this is what happening now outside Kabul airport ?♂️ #طالبان #AfghanWomen #أفغانستان pic.twitter.com/SF06SPY3gg
— ??????? ? (@mab985) August 18, 2021
This is Heartbreaking?.
A mother gives her baby to US soldiers so her baby can be evacuated from the country and saved from the #Taliban.
She may never see her child again.
Kabul Airport, #Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/ER44sRRnIz
— Fazila Baloch?☀️ (@IFazilaBaloch) August 20, 2021
Sources said that people on-ground have been barred from speaking to media officials. Some said that the real pictures in cities have not even reached media houses because reporters have been barred from documenting the situation.
As such individuals, especially women have stepped forward to share their experiences. One person shared a letter explaining how she could not continue her education. The Taliban in its official account promised to uphold women’s rights. However, the girl remembered her struggle to go to school 20 years ago and feared that her life may revert back to when she had no freedom.
A letter from an Afghan girl ? #Afganisthan #AfghanWomen #HumanRights pic.twitter.com/x66g8hbUXx
— Meriem (@MeriemHB) August 20, 2021
Similarly, School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) President Shabana Basij-Rasikh recalled how thousands of Afghan girls were invited to the nearest public school in March 2002 for a placement test. The Taliban had burned all female students’ records to erase their existence, including Shabana’s documents.
“Nearly 20 years later… I’m burning my students’ records not to erase them, but to protect them and their families… My students, colleagues, and I are safe with enormous gratitude to our ever-vibrant global village. The time to appropriately express my gratitude will come. But right now there are many who aren’t or increasingly don’t feel safe. I’m broken & devastated for them,” she said in a Twitter thread.
As the world focuses on the dramatic – those Afghans who are managing to get out – the fire in me to invest in the education of Afghan girls who have no way out grows brighter, stronger, and louder.
3/6— Shabana Basij-Rasikh (@sbasijrasikh) August 20, 2021
With women at the forefront, Afghans are protesting in small numbers. A couple of days ago, a small group of women held up placards in protest in Kabul. The incident was largely covered by international media as the first reported women’s protest. Similarly, activist and writer Crystal Bayat was one of the 7 women who protested on Afghanistan’s Independence Day.
In an interview with New York Times, Bayat said she was protesting for the millions of Afghani women who could not voice themselves. On August 20, Reporters Without Borders raised concern about women journalists who were stopped from going to work or replaced by male counterparts.
The girl in these pictures is my friend and classmate from Delhi University. When I spoke to her a few days back, she was scared but today she’s out there fighting for her rights!
More power to all the #AfghanWomen ?? pic.twitter.com/VQUSaokhLE
— Diksha Verma (@dikshaaverma) August 19, 2021
On August 18, individuals waved the Afghan flag during the Taliban’s takeover. According to Bayat, the hoisting of the national flag itself has become a form of defiance.
This is Jalal Abad, Afghanistan. Brave Afghan people holding Afghan flags protesting against the forceful take over of Afghanistan. All democratic countries and forces must support them in their rightful struggle. #Afganisthan #AfghanWomen #TalibanDestroyingAfghanistan pic.twitter.com/tm73R7TAvv
— Shakoor Afridi (@Shakoor_Apriday) August 18, 2021
Meanwhile, filmmaker Sahraa Karimi also questioned the silence of the United Nations and countries like the US that allegedly abused the civilians at the Kabul airport.
#American soldiers treat people violently at the airport; Canisters are thrown at people; They beat people, women, children
Why didn’t US use all these acts against the Taliban all these years?
Why is the #UN silent?
— Sahraa Karimi/ صحرا كريمي (@sahraakarimi) August 20, 2021
Accounts like these all the more highlight that countries need to start voicing solidarity with the people of Afghanistan. Many people are applying for Indian and Canadian visas. Particularly, students who received admission to foreign institutions during the pandemic are appealing for help. Former students have also reached out to netizens.
الوضع في محيط #السفارة الكندية في #كابل.
حشود كبيرة تنتظر الحصول على وثيقة السفر.#طالبان في كابل.@kasimf pic.twitter.com/mkZLyIxagg— @HameedMohdShah (@HameedMohdShah) August 19, 2021
#SOS #AfghanWomen An Afghan college lecturer and her family are trying to reach India from Kabul. Any leads on whom she can reach out in India for help and support?
She was a student at TISS Mumbai. @DrSJaishankar@M_Lekhi @MEAIndia @HarshShringla@ChawlaSwati @shakyanepal pic.twitter.com/sXBvOWiP7m— Cheri (@CheriChe) August 21, 2021
The Afghan Girls Robotics Team has left Afghanistan! Now begins a long and arduous journey finding a new home and building new lives and futures for themselves.
Support @DigitalCitizenF #AfghanWomen @AMWADoctors @WomenInSTEM21 @TechWomen https://t.co/cTtM0oTVuq
— Douglas Chin MD FACS (@DougChinMD) August 21, 2021
Organisations like the Scholars at Risk Network partnered with 40 higher education institutions, associations, networks, and over 1,000 professionals and students to send a letter to US government officials calling for immediate action to save Afghanistan’s scholars, students, and civil society actors.
#Afghanistan: Read our urgent appeal to @SecBlinken for immediate action to save #scholars, #students, civil society leaders, & activists, in partnership with nearly 100 #HigherEd institutions & associations, and over 2000 professionals & students.https://t.co/RFy9XdDXvU
— Scholars At Risk (@ScholarsAtRisk) August 20, 2021
With a worrying future ahead, Afghanistan has only finished its first week since the Taliban takeover.
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