TOngelina Jolie again on the side of women. The actress and director, in an article published on Timeinvites to reflect on the female universe in Afghanistan one year after the return of the Taliban.
“I recently met a young Afghan refugee in Rome who was a few months away from her medical degree when the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government in August 2021. Her older sister was studying dentistry at university. Her two younger sisters did very well in school. Overnight, they and 14 million other Afghan women and girls lost their right to high school or college.the right to work and freedom of movement “.
The star, ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and has always been committed to women’s rights, tells the situation in the country in her article. And asks the world not to turn away ignoring the suffering and rights denied by the Taliban to millions of women and girls.
Angelina Jolie and Afghan women
“Long before September 11 – writes the actress – the stoning and flogging of Afghan women and their exclusion from education were a cause of global outrage“. For this reason, “the sight of Afghan women who have recovered from their own efforts over the past twenty years has been a bright light during years of continuous violence and suffering for the Afghan people. A year ago, Afghan women worked as doctors, teachers, artists, police officers, journalists, judges, lawyers and elected politicians ». But “all of this has been overturned with unimaginable speed“.
All the promises betrayed
And now, even if “the daughters of Afghanistan are extraordinary in their strength, resilience and resourcefulness“, The promises they believed in”have been betrayed“. «I met women – says Jolie – who, during the previous Taliban regime, dressed as boys in order to secretly attend school. And so they became journalists and lawyers, and helped build a better future for their country by believing in the promises of their leaders and the international community, who had guaranteed that they would have a voice in Afghan society ”.
Women beaten and tortured
Now, however, “women are again beaten on the streets or taken from their homes at night and tortured. And the country’s prisons are filling up with female political prisoners. There are news of girls kidnapped for forced marriage with Taliban leaders. As a woman and a mother, it torments me to even imagine what it must be like. ‘ And it is “absurd” that in the 21st century “there is a debate about how much education is ‘appropriate’ for a woman“. And even if in the long run “attempts to force Afghan women to return home will fail”, the actress says she is “terrified” when she thinks how long “these repressive systems could last”.
We must be indignant even today
So, as “we were right to be outraged by the mistreatment of women in Afghanistan in the 1990s”, the international community should “still be indignant today”. The appeal of the actress is therefore that of “not to make further diplomatic concessions to the Taliban at the expense of the womenand, but we should instead try to support them “through all possible means. Jolie concludes with a message «to my Afghan friends: I believe in you, in your resilience, in your strength. There have been dark moments in the history of Afghanistan, but this is not the final chapter ».
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