Current affairs

'We need your voice': Afghan filmmaker's heartbreaking appeal to the world to break its silence!

By alagu, 16 August, 2021
Afghanistan, Taliban, United States, Joe Biden

The tears of Afghans have been bordered within its territory as the global countries had failed to lend out their voice and solidarity to the Afghan people in restoring peace and free conduct of life amid watching dismayed developments as the Afghan soil has gone under the control of the Taliban after 20 years. The botched decision of US President Joe Biden followed by the decisions of the NATO allies to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan had put the country in peril as the Taliban had regained control of Afghanistan and took over the reign on Sunday after successfully capturing Kabul.

What is more shocking for Afghans than falling to the Taliban is the fleeing of President Ghani and what is more shocking for Afghans than seeing the president's runaway is the eerie silence observed by the global nations. While Ghani was among the top officials to flee the country by leaving the citizens into dusk, the global nations had keenly concentrated on the evacuation on its own citizens and embassy staff - evidence: dozens of Afghans trying to get on the US Air Force jet to leave the country when it was about to take off from the Kabul airport and two persons were seen falling off from the sky after they were hanging on the landing gear of the aircraft.

As Afghans are crying with the fact that their future has become their past, Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi has made a heartbreaking appeal to the world on August 13 not to abandon Afghanistan. On Monday, reputed Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap took to social media and shared the appeal made by Karimi, who is the first female chairperson of the Afghan Film Organization. In her open letter, Karimi has appealed to the international community to end its silence on what Afghanistan is confronting. In her letter, Karimi had highlighted the nightmare of the Afghan people and indicated the Taliban's horrific face of trading girls as child brides to their fighters. She has further questioned the silence of international humanitarian organizations on the ongoing situation in Afghanistan. 

In her letter, she wrote, "My name is Sahraa Karimi, a film director and the current general director of Afghan Film, the only state-owned film company established in 1968. I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers from the Taliban. In the last few weeks, the Taliban have gained control of so many provinces. They have massacred our people, they kidnapped many children, they sold girls as child brides to their men, they murdered a woman for her attire, they gauged the eyes of a woman, they tortured and murdered one of our beloved comedians, they murdered one of our historian poets, they murdered the head of culture and media of the government, they have been assassinating people affiliated with the government, they hung some of our men publicly, they have displaced hundreds of thousands of families." 

She further penned, "The families are in camps in Kabul after fleeing these provinces and they are in an unsanitary condition. There is looting in the camps and babies dying because they don't have milk. It is a humanitarian crisis, and yet the world is silent." She stated, "We have grown accustomed to this silence, yet we know it is not fair. We know that this decision to abandon our people is wrong, that this hasty troop withdrawal is a betrayal of our people and all that we did when Afghans won the Cold war for the west. Our people were forgotten then, leading up to the Taliban's dark rule, and now, after twenty years of immense gains for our country and especially our younger generations, all could be lost again in this abandonment."

"We need your voice. The media, governments, and the world humanitarian organizations are conveniently silent as if this "Peace deal" with the Taliban was ever legitimate. It was never legitimate. Recognizing them gave them the confidence to come back to power. The Taliban have been brutalizing our people throughout the entire process of the talks. Everything that I have worked so hard to build as a filmmaker in my country is at risk of falling. If the Taliban take over they will ban all art. I and other filmmakers could be next on their hit list. They will strip women's rights, we will be pushed into the shadows of our homes and our voices, our expression will be stifled into silence", she added. 

Karimi further penned, "When the Taliban were in power, zero girls were in school. Since then, there are over 9 million Afghan girls in school. This is incredible. Herat, the third-largest city which just fell to the Taliban had nearly 50% women in its university. These are incredible gains that the world hardly knows about. Just in these few weeks, the Taliban have destroyed many schools and 2 million girls are forced now out of school again." On Sunday, the Taliban fighters had taken over the control of Kabul and the entire country and captured the presidential palace. As the Taliban is going to rule the country after 20 years, the panicked Afghan citizens had made attempts to flee the country and they had thronged for the airport to board the last fight to leave the country before the flights were cancelled. By sharing Karimi's letter on social media on Monday, Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap wrote, "Pls share it far and wide..."

 

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