Shamsia Hassani, Afghanistan’s first female graffiti artist, wrote these words on Facebook this week in response to her country’s swift takeover by the Taliban and the fear that the freedoms girls and women have won since 2001 will be crushed. Already there were reports from people who had fled to the capital Kabul from Taliban-controlled parts of the county that the Taliban had begun ordering towns to turn over unmarried girls and women to become “wives” for their fighters and publicly flogging women for leaving their homes without a male chaperone. Today, Taliban forces have largely taken control of the capital, leaving no sanctuary for women from these brutal extremists.
For those heartsick and angered by the devastating news out of Afghanistan, here are two ways you can help girls and women during these dire times:
Women for Afghan Women: This non-profit organization has been fighting for the rights of Afghan women for 20 years. Today, they are trying to help the women’s rights activists they work with throughout the country who are in extreme danger from the Taliban. To support their critical work, you can make a donation at https://amgrl.co/3AJgRwL
CARE: One of the world’s largest humanitarian aid organizations, CARE has a long history of helping people in Afghanistan. In recent weeks, there has been a huge increase in the demand for emergency aid as many families have fled the Taliban. You can support their work in Afghanistan with a donation at https://amgrl.co/3iOeSBp
Evening Quickie #soldierporn: Now you’re just being ironic.
Coalition force members, in a play on words, pop smoke as they depart a village stability platform in Khak-E-Safed district, Farah province, Afghanistan. Coalition force members were located at Village Stability Platform Khak-E-Safed in order to train and mentor Afghan National Security Forces. Coalition force members de-militarized the VSP allowing ANSF to single-handedly continue counter-terrorism operations and bring security and stability to people of the district.
(U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau, 25 FEB 2013.)
U.S. Army Sergeant Curtis Smith, left, provides security during an Afghan Border Patrol outpost assessment at the Nawa Pass in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, Feb. 10, 2013. Smith is assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s Security Force Advise and Assist Team Gambit, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team.
USMC Staff Sergeant Jonathan D. Davis. 22 FEB 2013.
Died of wounds sustained from IED attack while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Davis was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 32nd Georgian Liaison Team, Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Coalition force tactical vehicles move across the desert departing Khak-E-Safed district, Farah province, Afghanistan. Coalition force members were located at Village Stability Platform Khak-E-Safed in order to train and mentor Afghan National Security Forces. Coalition force members de-militarized the VSP allowing ANSF to single-handedly continue counter-terrorism operations and bring security and stability to people of the district.
(U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau, 25 FEB 2013.)
Coalition force members use winches to pull a stuck vehicle out of a soft spot in the desert after departing a village stability platform in Khak-E-Safed district, Farah province, Afghanistan. Coalition force members were located at Village Stability Platform Khak-E-Safed in order to train and mentor Afghan National Security Forces. Coalition force members de-militarized the VSP allowing ANSF to single handedly continue counter-terrorism operations and bring security and stability to people of the district.
(Photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau, 25 FEB 2013.)
[I just cannot get over how amazing a photographer this combat camera is. Every time I see his surname in the credits, I make little pleasure-noises. -R]
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Delbert Hicks, commander of the Special Troops Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, awards soldiers at an end of tour awards ceremony on Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province, Afghanistan. The soldiers received awards for their exemplary services during a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Evening Quickie #soldierporn: Hairy bastard, hard worker.
Paris, a coalition force military working dog, gets ready to attend a transition shura in Khak-E-Safed district, Farah province, Afghanistan. Farah Provincial Governor Dr. Mohammed Akram Khpalwak used the transition shura as an opportunity to highlight Afghan National Security Forces’, especially Afghan Local Police, successes which allowed the de-militarization of coalition forces in the area. Afghan National Security Forces will continue counter insurgency operations without the presence or mentorship of coalition forces. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau, 23 FEB 2013.)
A U.S. Marine Corps MRAP assigned to Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, provides security in support of Operation Dynamic Partnership in Shurakay, Helmand province, Afghanistan. Dynamic Partnership was a multi-unit operation to retrograde all U.S. military equipment and personnel from village stability platform Shurakay.
A coalition force member provides security during a mission that arrested a Haqqani facilitator in Pul-e ‘Alam district, Logar province. The detained Haqqani facilitator was responsible for the acquisition and delivery of weapons to Haqqani fighters within Logar province. He coordinated and executed kidnappings and assassinations of Afghan Local Police as well as government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials.
An Afghan-led security force, supported by coalition troops, prepare for a mission that arrested a Taliban facilitator in Khost district, Khost province. The detained Taliban facilitator was responsible for the acquisition and transfer of weapons and ammunition to multiple Taliban and Haqqani cells operating within Logar province. He coordinated the sale and delivery of multiple heavy weapons to include machine guns, rockets and improvised explosive devices to insurgents throughout Kabul, Pul - e ‘Alam and Baraki Barak districts.
As Taliban fighters took Kabul on Sunday evening, roaming through the halls of the abandoned presidential palace, the group issued a statement: It would soon revive Afghanistan’s former name.
The country that was built in the wake of the 2001 U.S. invasion at a cost of over $2 trillion would revert to the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.” (That’s the name the country bore between 1996 and 2001).
The Taliban, which means “students” in the Pashto language, have been waging an insurgency against the Western-backed government in Kabul since they were ousted from power in 2001.
The group was formed by “mujahideen” fighters who fought Soviet forces in the 1980s with the backing of the CIA.
Emerging in 1994 as one of several factions fighting a civil war, the Taliban gained control of much of the country by 1996 and imposed its own strict version of Sharia, or Islamic law.
Men were forced to grow beards. Women were forced to wear burqas, flowing garments that cover the entire face and body. Schools for girls were shuttered. Women who were unaccompanied in public places could be beaten. Soccer was banned. So was music, aside from religious chants. The Taliban government held public executions in Kabul’s Ghazi Stadium.
There were photos of children dying of preventable illnesses in a dilapidated pediatric hospital. Images of the ancient Buddhist statues pulverized by the Taliban because its leaders considered the stone images to be idolatrous. The sea of refugees and displaced people living in makeshift tents across the region.
The group is infamous for its use of suicide bombers and has been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Western citizens for ransom.
Only four countries recognised the Taliban when it was last in power: neighbouring Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkemnistan.
After sheltering Osama bin Laden and key al Qaeda figures in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Taliban would fall after a US-led military coalition launched an offensive on 7 October 2001.
Despite being ousted from power, the Taliban would continue a guerrilla war against the Western-backed governments and US-led forces in the country.
Around 150,000 British military personnel have served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, and 457 have been killed.
Also, 2,448 American service members have died in the conflict.
The Taliban entered into talks with the US in 2018 and struck a ‘peace’ deal in February 2020 which committed the US to withdraw its troops while preventing the Taliban from attacking US forces.
However, the Taliban have continued to kill Afghan security forces and civilians…
If there is 1 image that symbolized the brutality of the Taliban regime in 90s, it was that of a woman in a blue burqa being executed in public in KBL’s stadium.
An Afghan judge hits a woman with a whip in front of a crowd in Ghor province, Afghanistan August 31, 2015. REUTERS/Pajhwok News Agency.
Raise awarness, reshare, reblog, repost, donate and visit all the above websites. We must speak out and speak loudly. I urge each one of you to raise awareness
Full offence but countries like America, Australia, the UK, etc, should all be – not only accepting as many refugees from Afghanistan as need be, but helping refugees get the fuck out of Afghanistan.
We’re the ones who spent twenty years fucking up their country and murdering their civilians “forfun.” And then we just collectively drop everything and say “the Taliban can have you.”
Fuck that noise. It’s disgusting. There are untold numbers of people fleeing the Taliban right now, across the whole country, with all of them – but especially women and anyone who might be accused of helping the old government/foreign armies – fearing for their lives.
The Western countries that have spent two decades fucking up Afghanistan have a duty of fucking care to the civilians left behind.
Breaking news as of 16 August 2021 is that the Afghan president and all other government officials have fled Kabul. The “last stronghold” that was predicted to “hold out against the Taliban for three months” has fallen within a week, and most civilians in that city and others that have been overrun are now fearing for their lives.
We have a basic moral obligation to help them in any way possible. That includes taking unreserved numbers of refugees that are refugees in large part due to the actions of the “heroic west.”
