AMP in the post
You can almost say that the rest of the world has moved on, but the sad stories of the girls who has had their rights ripped from them continue to be a nightmare.
“This isn’t the final chapter,” Angelina Jolie writes.
Angelina Jolie – Pens Op-ed Detailing the Horrors Afghan Women Face Following Taliban Takeover
Last August, the world was sent into shock when the Taliban took over the control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of foreign military forces from the country.
A year later, humanitarian and special envoy to the United Nations refugee agency since 2012, Angelina Jolie, wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post detailing the horrors female children face in their own native land.
AMP in the post
She opened the letter by recounting a meeting with a young Afghan living in Rome who was “months from qualifying as a doctor” before the Afghan government was overthrown, and whose sisters were deprived of education as well.
“Overnight, they and 14 million other Afghan women and girls lost their right to go to high school or university, their right to work, and their freedom of movement,” Jolie wrote.
Jolie said that the past two decades saw a progress that is “a bright light during years of continuing violence and suffering for the people of Afghanistan,” adding that the progresses made have “been overturned with unimaginable speed.”
She further praised Afghan females, noting that they are “extraordinary for their strength, resilience, and resourcefulness”.
Detailing the painful treatment of Afghan women, which includes public flogging, political imprisonment, kidnapping and even forced marriages to Taliban leaders, Jolie explained the painful lows the female child has been degraded to in the Afghan society.
AMP in the post
“Yet despite the dangers, the greatest resistance to the reversal of women’s rights in Afghanistan has not come from foreign powers, but from Afghan women themselves, who have taken to the streets,” Jolie wrote.
Angelina Jolie Condemns the US and its Allies For Withdrawing From Afghanistan
Angelina Jolie, 47, further blasted the US government and its allies for their shameful withdrawal, which only served to put the lives of countless women at risk.
“There have been different chapters in Afghanistan’s history and many dark moments. This is undoubtedly one of them. But I’m sure that this isn’t the final chapter. The dream of a pluralistic, open Afghanistan built on the equal efforts and free voices of all its people may seem to be — and be in reality — a distant hope. But I know it’s possible. This does not end here,” Jolie concluded.
While the US were able to get many out, an estimated 80,000 Afghans who helped US in the war remained stuck in the country, with some confirmed dead or missing.
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