What’s Not Debatable in the Afghanistan Debate - Women’s Campaign Fund
Bahar Jalali is one of voices we are talking with these days. She can help each of us help women in Afghanistan. It does not matter where or how you help, just help now and in the days to come.
Today, the debate rages on as to what went right and what went wrong in the 20-year Afghan effort. It is a worthy discussion, yet one we do not have time for at this moment.
What we must hear now is not the words of all the arguments but the words of Afghan women and girls.
The idea that they live under a new Taliban that’s not so bad is contradicted daily, hourly, by these women and their cries for help.
What do they need from us right this minute?
“In the immediate present, it is important to work to identify women who are not on evacuation lists but who need to be evacuated,” Jalali, the founder of the first gender studies program in Afghanistan and director of the country’s first women’s mentoring program, told us.
Do you or does anyone around you know of an Afghani woman who needs help? Do this now. Fill in critical information on an Afghan Evacuation Data Collection form at this link: https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/afghan-evacuation.
And make sure our elected officials and others get this:
“The Taliban need international assistance but that should be conditioned on treatment of women,” Jalali says. “Thus far, their messaging has been inconsistent with their actions. It is important for American women to put pressure on their government to not recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan. This is perhaps the only real leverage left. Afghanistan will disappear from the 24-hour news cycle. But activism and advocacy must continue.”
IOW, international assistance MUST be linked to the VERIFIABLE equal and proper treatment of women. Full stop.
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What we must hear now is not the words of all the arguments but the words of Afghan women and girls.
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Afghan women need more from us right now than many other desperate, deserving people trapped in the collapse of their government. Carrying children and burdened by restrictive clothing, even the option of fleeing through a frightened crowd eludes our Afghan sisters. They battle constant, appalling barriers to their safety and refuge.
When they finally get to freedom, we can help those coming to the United States. Volunteers are needed in many capacities. Find your path to help here https://www.afgevac.org/
These links open doors for you to help.
Afghan women threw open the doors to opportunity, fought for the future of their country. They raced to seize the chance for education, to hold office, to become judges, public servants. They challenge our contentment with unequal representation in a nation in which those very privileges are the — as yet unrealized — law of the land.
We know that the incremental but significant freedoms gained in Afghanistan in the past 20 years will not be secure. We cannot let the geographical distance convince us there’s nothing we can do. Reach for them now.
Then reach for #5050x2028 with that much more respect, resolve, commitment. It’s our right and a gift to those who desperately seek that dream.
©2021 Women’s Campaign Fund
#5050x2028
