Country in Crisis
It’s been 3 months and 3 days since I sat astonished on my couch at the scenes unfolding in Afghanistan, feeling like a helpless spectator seated 8,304km away as the Taliban boasted victory from the presidential palace in Kabul. In the days that followed I shed tears for the Afghan women and raised prayers for the persecuted religious minorities. Between frantically sharing ‘stories’ on Instagram and attempting to make sense of it all, I pled through words with my local MPs and urged others to do the same.
And then, silence.
Whole days and nights spent on lectures and assignments crept in. Coffee, shopping, work, Netflix.
I swapped my refusal to become a bystander for excuses disguised as reasons. I tell myself I began to forget, but ‘forgetting’ looked a lot like ignoring.
It is true that ignorance can so easily become bliss and I believe this has been the case for so many of us. As the Taliban shutdown media coverage and our news outlets moved on, we continued scrolling and our outrage quickly numbed. Many, however, cannot forget. Those living in the the reality of this new regime cannot simply press pause on their fear.
How did we get here in the first place?
Well, to set the scene we’ll jump back for a moment to 2001. Following 9/11, the Taliban’s original 4 year long regime of power was overthrown by a U.S.-UK led invasion. What followed was 20 years of international military intervention, a long-term war coined by a generation as ‘the war on terror’ that claimed thousands upon thousands of lives.
However, in February 2020 the U.S. signed the dotted line on a Peace Agreement with the Taliban. The agreement was based on the commitment from the U.S. to withdraw all troops on the conditions that the Taliban (identifying themselves as ‘The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’) worked towards a new government ‘as determined by intra-Afghan dialogue’. A new era of hope appeared to be dawning, so much so that 7 months later the Council for Foreign Relations (2020) reported that ‘a peaceful settlement to the ongoing war within Afghanistan may now be in reach’.
Yet as we sit here just over one year on, we see that for the Afghan people, the climax was one of anything but peace. The Islamic extremist group has been slowly taking back land in Afghanistan for over 10 years now, but the Taliban offensive really kicked off in May 2021 and rapidly gained traction as the U.S. withdrawal reached its final stages, resulting in the violent power-grab of Kabul on August 15th.
So, while our heads have been turned, what has been happening on the ground in Afghanistan?
In short, a lot. Food shortages, drought, the Covid-19 pandemic and violence, along with the consequences such as economic fragility and internal migration mean that the situation is quickly evolving into what many are describing as on the verge of becoming the world’s worst humanitarian crisis (AghanAid, 2021). While 97% of the population are expected to fall below the poverty line within the next year according to the UN (yes, I did say 97%), international funding was suspended shortly after the Taliban takeover putting extreme pressure on an already fragile economy which in turn has been devastating for healthcare systems and other vital infrastructure.
The situation is extremely complex, although some nations feel that aid going into Afghanistan should be unconditional, others such as the UK plan to leverage financial aid as a negotiation tool in order to secure the safety of women, girls and minority groups. In addition, there does not appear to be a simple way to deliver financial aid while avoiding the Taliban corruptly dealing with the money received, however some NGOs have independently met with the Taliban and agreed to continue their work on the ground to deliver humanitarian aid.
Throughout this all, it is Afghan women and girls that appear to be carrying the heaviest burden. While initially the Taliban claimed that “Our sisters, our men have the same rights,” their words fell so far short of the reality, with the new Taliban rule committing many human rights violations. Strict new laws meant that overnight women were wiped from government positions (or any position that could not be filled by a male), as well as banned from the classroom with secondary education only available to girls in a handful of provinces in completely segregated schools (Safi, 2021; Barr, 2021).
Additionally, women are being silenced. Courageous women who use their right to speak out are being beaten, protests are being shut down and activists hunted out (Human Rights Watch, 2021). There is a massive disconnect between laws in force in Kabul and the actions being carried out by Taliban members in the streets, with a major lack of consistency across provinces that has led to women being abused and intimidated by Taliban members for the way they dress, or for leaving home without a mahram (a male family member acting as a chaperone).
In the midst of this human rights crisis, it is illegal for women aid workers to work outside of the office. In a society where gender division runs deep, preventing women aid workers from delivering aid means a bleak outlook for Afghan females, particularly in female-headed households (for example, those widowed by the past 20 years of conflict), who cannot receive personal aid from male workers.
The female voice in Afghanistan cannot be forgotten and ignored, not only for the present population but for the generation of girls to come after them. A lack of women in the workforce, in the humanitarian sector and in government means that the female voice becomes unheard. Yet there are many brave Afghan women risking their lives to ensure that does not happen, and as men and women in the western world who have a voice, we cannot let their hope grow dim, we cannot cease to speak on their behalf.
What can I do to help?
As I recall the past few months, the weight of my own inaction and the scale of the crisis can easily become crippling and that’s where I believe we have to make a choice. Either, we choose to push away our feelings of inadequacy, our lack of understanding, our regret, or we choose to allow our hearts to be broken and use our voice (no matter how small we feel that may be) to speak for those who in Afghanistan who do not have the chance to make their voice heard.
There are a few really simple steps that we can take to make change happen:
Educate
Knowledge really is power, and one of the most powerful and compassionate things we can do for those in the midst of crisis is seek to understand and seek to share that knowledge with others.
Follow On Instagram:
@rescue_uk (posts digestible information about Afghanistan and many other humanitarian crisis’)
@womenforafghanwomen (regular panel discussions)
Follow On Twitter:
Educate Others
Why not share a post to your Instagram story? Or take a minute to ask friends or family what their thoughts are?
Donate
How about giving up a coffee or two in the next week and donating to a tried-and-tested NGO working on the ground instead?MSF (Doctors Without Borders)
Or donate locally - as the first group of Afghan refugees are expected to arrive in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks, consider donating clothes, food items or your time to organisations who support the integration of refugees into society. Storehouse Belfast are a great charity with a hands-on approach in communities within Belfast.
References:
AfghanAid 2021, , Afghanistan: three months on from the Taliban takeover. Available: https://www.afghanaid.org.uk/News/afghanistan-three-months-on-from-the-taliban-takeover [18.11.21].
Barr, H. 2021, , List of Taliban Policies Violating Women’s Rights in Afghanistan. Available: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/29/list-taliban-policies-violating-womens-rights-afghanistan [15.11.21].
Council of Foreign Relations 2020, Sep-last update, What to Know About the Afghan Peace Negotiations. Available: https://www.cfr.org/article/what-know-about-afghan-peace-negotiations [17.11.21].
Safi, T.N. 2021, Girls return to high school in some regions of Afghanistan, Geneva.
