Every time I post about Afghanistan, I remember how I posted an article with a quote about Afghanistan.
It said one of the main problems with Afghan women and girl's terrible suffering is Western indifference to Afghan women and girl's terrible suffering.
It didn't receive a single boost or reply.
Not even a like.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵1
It said one of the main problems with Afghan women and girl's terrible suffering is Western indifference to Afghan women and girl's terrible suffering.
It didn't receive a single boost or reply.
Not even a like.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵1
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (3 Monate her)
ProjectFearlessness •
(🤚Hi, Owen)
#FreeAfghanWomen
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ProjectFearlessness •
I always respond politely, saying this is about the actual Taliban in Afghanistan, and ask them what do they think about them.
I'm yet to receive a reply.
Not a single one.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵3
ProjectFearlessness •
All this time, and it's just tumbleweeds rolling across the world stage.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵4
ProjectFearlessness •
At this point, I really don't know what, if anything, we can do for women and girls in Afghanistan.
I only know it starts by remembering they still exist.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵5
ProjectFearlessness •
First, some good news from the U.K. which may have got overlooked(we've been busy!).
U.K. government to expand Afghan resettlement scheme to include separated family members.
The new U.K. immigration minister Seema Malhotra said simply:
"The Afghans did right by us. It's time for us to do right by them"
She has no plans to remove any cartoon murals.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵6
https://www.ein.org.uk/news/afghan-families-separated-during-2021-kabul-military-evacuation-can-now-apply-be-reunited-uk
Afghan families separated during 2021 military evacuation of Kabul can now apply to be reunited in the UK
www.ein.org.ukProjectFearlessness •
Anonymous female Afghan aid worker.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵7
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/15/afghanistan-taliban-women-struggle-female-aid-worker
ProjectFearlessness •
At the Olympics, I realised that I had to use that moment to raise awareness. The girls in Afghanistan are more important than my dreams. Honestly, they are more important than my life."
Manizha Talash,
Afghan Olympic Breakdancer.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵8
https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/64387/1/free-afghan-women-manizha-bgirl-talash-taking-fight-olympic-stage-disqualified
‘Free Afghan Women’: B-girl Talash on taking her fight to the Olympic stage
Dazed DigitalProjectFearlessness •
Manizha Talash,
Afghan,
Olympic Refugee Team Breakdancer,
(disqualified)
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵9
ProjectFearlessness •
Here's a detailed photo of Olympic Breakdancer Manizha Talash's cape that got her disqualified at the Olympics.
Here you can see what wasn't clear on the press photos. She has used a traditional Afghan burka, complete with mesh bar visor slit.
She's taken the symbol of women's oppression in Afghanistan, and turned it into wings.
And the slogan that says it all.
FREE AFGHAN WOMEN.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵10
ProjectFearlessness •
We urge the international community to remain mobilized to obtain the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women."
Audrey Azoulay,
UNESCO Director-General.
#LetAfghanGirlsLearn
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵11
https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-girls-education-access-taliban/33079700.html
At Least 1.4 Million Afghan Girls Banned From Attending School Since Taliban Takeover, UNESCO Says
RFE/RL's Radio Azadi (RFE/RL)ProjectFearlessness •
ZERO AFGHAN GIRLS ARE IN SCHOOL AFTER THE AGE OF 11.
That's the Taliban way. They stay at home and do the housework, until they are married and then they stay at home and do the housework.
What can they do?
Open Secret Underground Schools.
Ssssh!
#LetAfghanGirlsLearn
#FreeAfghanWomen
#12
https://www.bigissue.com/news/activism/afghanistan-women-girls-secret-schools-taliban/
How Afghan women and girls are defying the Taliban with secret schools: ‘We are not alone’
Hoda Javdani (Big Issue)ProjectFearlessness •
Secret underground schools for girls where teachers and students risk beatings and lashings and imprisonment if they're caught, just so they can receive the basics of an education?
Is this from The Handmaids Tale?
No. This is the actual reality of life in Afghanistan in 2024.
Some of the schools are paid for by the charity Ideas Beyond Borders. Info and donation opportunity in the link below.
#LetAfghanGirlsLearn
#FreeAfghanWomen
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https://ideasbeyondborders.org/program/underground-schools-in-afghanistan/#:~:text=We're%20working%20with%20local,4%2C615%20enrolled%20just%20this%20year.
Underground Schools In Afghanistan
Ideas Beyond BordersProjectFearlessness •
This misrepresents the wide range of views in Afghan society, ignores the history of struggle between modernizing and traditional Afghan politics, and Afghan women's decades long struggle for equal rights and representation.
Why would you say that?
I wonder.
#FreeAfghanWomen
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ProjectFearlessness •
Believe me when I say the women's rights movement in Afghanistan is not a new thing. They have been standing up for their rights in Afghanistan for decades, centuries even. It's a struggle that already existed, well before the Taliban or the U.S. and the U.K. got involved.
The struggle continues
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵15
https://ppr.lse.ac.uk/articles/10.31389/lseppr.59
The Rise and Fall of Women Rights in Afghanistan | LSE Public Policy Review
LSE Public Policy ReviewProjectFearlessness •
This thread is concentrating on the current dire and overlooked state of women's basic human rights. And I'm sure we can all agree on that.
(you can ignore this post unless you get it sent as a reply from me. It doesn't mean I agree or disagree. It means we're wandering off topic. That's All.)
🧵16
#FreeAfghanWomen
ProjectFearlessness •
I won't be mentioning it too much here, partly because it's not my area of expertise, but mostly because this thread is heavy going enough. LGBT rights in Afghanistan is a whole other level of harrowing. Someone please post about it.
Read this article and you'll see what I mean.
🧵17
#FreeAfghanWomen
#TransRightsAreHumanRights
https://8am.media/eng/under-the-taliban-rule-transgender-individuals-treated-as-sexual-slaves/
ProjectFearlessness •
Let's move on to what is considered, almost, as light relief in Afghanistan. This week the Taliban are celebrating the 105th anniversary of Afghan Independence.
Are they having a laugh? Are they sure they really want us to remember events in 1919?
OK. We will. Next post.
🧵18
#FreeAfghanWomen
https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-yaqoob-anniversary-anglo-afghan-treaty/33083344.html
Taliban-Led Government Celebrates 105th Anniversary Of Afghan Independence
RFE/RL's Radio Azadi (RFE/RL)ProjectFearlessness •
It led to-
*End of mandatory hijab
*Full female participation in society
*Votes for women
*Female MPs
*Full education for girls.
*University education for women.
*Equal employment for women.
None of these rights for women are now available under Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2024.
You don't mention this bit though, do you lads?
#FreeAfghanWomen
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https://www.amnesty.org.uk/womens-rights-afghanistan-history
Women in Afghanistan: The Back Story
www.amnesty.org.ukProjectFearlessness •
We know the Taliban leaders have wives, but do we see them ? Do we know their names?
Now let's look at Queen Soraya of Afghanistan 1919-1929. She was a pioneer. She brought about change. She wrote the book* on gender equality in Afghanistan.
(*technically a monthly magazine, but you get the idea.)
#FreeAfghanWomen
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/1732666/amp
Queen Soraya of Afghanistan: A woman ahead of her time
Arab NewsProjectFearlessness •
Here's to 105 years of women in public life in Afghanistan!
#FreeAfghanWomen
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1919 2024
ProjectFearlessness •
Who was the 'first lady' of Afghanistan in 1919?
That's easy, that was Queen Soraya. She was everywhere. She was belatedly on the cover of Time magazine woman of the year 1927.
Who is the 'first lady' of Afghanistan in 2024?
Hmm, well it's thought Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has two wives but nobody's really sure. They haven't made any public announcements and as for names and photos, forget it.
#FreeAfghanWomen
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ProjectFearlessness •
Through their forthcoming achievements, the girls will prove the Taliban ban on education very wrong."
Sabir Zazai,
Scottish Refugee Council.
#FreeAfghanWomen
#LetAfghanWomenLearn
#RefugeesWelcome
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https://www.thetimes.com/article/ae88e9c1-204a-4ac6-bc2d-0cdaecb0a976?shareToken=968c1404ddf0ba13cc93f3bc1d37254d
ProjectFearlessness •
This is Scottish Refugee Council head Sabir Zazai, who came to the country as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1999.
He's standing in sunny Edinburgh, with some of the 20 refugee women from Afghanistan who have just arrived on visas to study medicine at Scottish universities.
If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.
#FreeAfghanWomen
#RefugeesWelcome
#Scotland
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ProjectFearlessness •
Info and donation opportunity below.
#FreeAfghanWomen
#26
https://lindanorgrovefoundation.org/what-we-do/where-your-money-goes/
Where your money goes - The Linda Norgrove Foundation
The Linda Norgrove FoundationProjectFearlessness •
She and her classmates were in the sixth and final year of their medicine degrees when the Taliban returned. The university attempted to hold their last 3 exams in one day before they were closed down.
On that day, the Taliban were waiting for them at the university. They were stopped, surrounded, and taken away at gunpoint.
And still they don't give up.
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https://glasgowguardian.co.uk/2023/04/26/the-female-afghan-medical-students-hoping-to-study-in-scotland/
The female Afghan medical students hoping to study in Scotland - Glasgow Guardian
Glasgow Guardian Editors (Glasgow Guardian)ProjectFearlessness •
Snatch away all hope and some will conclude that there is no way to go on."
#FreeAfghanWomen
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/20/the-guardian-view-on-afghanistan-gender-apartheid-dont-embolden-the-taliban?CMP=share_btn_url
ProjectFearlessness •
Afghanistan is losing more than its future health-care workers, with the concomitant risks to women and girls.
The Taliban’s institutionalized gender oppression is depriving Afghanistan of its future women engineers, journalists, lawyers, biologists, politicians and poets.”
Richard Bennett,
UN Special Rapporteur
#FreeAfghanWomen
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ProjectFearlessness •
Taliban spokesman.
#FreeAfghanWomen
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https://www.afintl.com/en/202408219084
UN Human Rights Rapporteur Banned From Entering Afghanistan, Announces Taliban
Afghanistan InternationalProjectFearlessness •
Did you know the Taliban have made it illegal for men to shave in Afghanistan? They're all forced to wear beards, and not the cool hipster kind either. No, it's got to be the full Mujahadeen.
If you're not hairy enough to grow a big enough beard, you're an Islamic failure and lose your job. Yes, really.
🧵31
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/taliban-sacks-hundreds-of-men-because-they-can-t-grow-beards/ar-AA1pbOve
ProjectFearlessness •
Remember that men have been fined, beaten and arrested for having their beards trimmed too short. Men have been dismissed from their jobs simply because they can't grow a full enough beard, and barbers are no longer able to feed their children.
All over beards! Stupid's not the word.
🧵32
https://www.rferl.org/a/taliban-beatings-beards-shaving/31496264.html
Taliban's 'New' Governing Style Includes Beatings For Beard Shaving
RFE/RL's Radio Azadi (RFE/RL)ProjectFearlessness •
I know at least some of you are thinking all the men in Afghanistan are loving Taliban rule, cheering on the patriarchy as they delight in watching women go right back to medieval times.
You're wrong. Not completely wrong, but wrong. I'll keep saying it. If you want simple answers about Afghanistan, you won't find them here.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵33
ProjectFearlessness •
The worst are no worse than the worst ones you find in every country in the world. Take a good look around you.
There are also good men in Afghanistan. Take one of Afghan photographer Shah Marai's last posts on Twitter. In 2018, between the reports of the ever increasing suicide bombs in Kabul that would soon claim his life, he wrote simply:
Happy International Women's Day to all Strong Women.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵34
ProjectFearlessness •
It will be much less of a surprise to those of you who have seen my long thread on Afghan photographer Shah Marai, Democracy and Women's Rights in Afghanistan.
(Shameless self promotion in link below 👇)
#FreeAfghanWomen
#ShahMarai
#Afghanistan
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https://mastodonapp.uk/@ProjectFearlessness/110762255453800060
ProjectFearlessness (@ProjectFearlessness@mastodonapp.uk)
Mastodon App UKProjectFearlessness •
I am that stupid that I will ask this question, but I'm not that stupid that I think I can answer it.
What I will say is that, in the beginning, plenty of them tried.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵35
https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-taliban-ban-women-university-protests-men/32199112.html
'Teach Everyone Or No One': Afghan Men Join In Protests Against Taliban's Ban On Women's Education
RFE/RL's Radio Azadi (RFE/RL)ProjectFearlessness •
He went live on Afghan television and ripped up all his educational diplomas, saying they were worthless in Afghanistan if women couldn't get them too.
He closed his university, saying if women can't receive an education, nobody can.
He took to the streets of Kabul with a cart full of his own book collection, handing them out to every woman and girl he could find.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵36
https://amu.tv/34520/
Lecturer makes mobile library to advocate for girls’ education | Amu TV
Amu TV (تلویزیون آمو)ProjectFearlessness •
He left prison in March 2023. His colleague Farhad Farzli said:
"Ismail is fine and in good health. However, he is not in a condition to talk at the moment."
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵37
https://www.dw.com/en/taliban-detains-afghan-activist-who-ralied-for-womens-education-rights/a-64608445
Taliban detains Afghan women's education rights activist
Deutsche WelleProjectFearlessness •
There were reports that he was hospitalised with physical and mental health problems about a month after he left prison. I'm still searching for any updates.
What did the Taliban do to him?
#IsmailMashal
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵37
https://www.afintl.com/en/202304282992
Afghan University Professor Hospitalised After His Release From Taliban Prison
Afghanistan InternationalProjectFearlessness •
I could show you more cases like Ismail Mashal's, but they always go the same way. Men who stand up for women's rights in Afghanistan are dealt with even more harshly than the women as they are seen as even more of a threat to the Taliban's rule.
#FreeAfghanWomen
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ProjectFearlessness •
What, exactly, do you want them to do?
What, exactly, would you do?
I keep telling you. If you want simple answers about Afghanistan, you won't find them here.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵39
ProjectFearlessness •
The Taliban's treatment of women and girls has even united all 57 varieties of the Muslim countries that make up the Organization of Islamic Cooperation . They say it very clearly. It goes against all Islamic values.
#FreeAfghanWomen
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2265201/world
Islamic world officials denounce Taliban actions, media stereotypes of Muslim women
Ephrem Kossaify (Arabnews)ProjectFearlessness •
“All countries within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are unanimous that this has nothing to with Islam, that this is alien to the concept of Islam, and the first word of the Holy Qur’an is ‘Read'.
We continue to press the interim government in Afghanistan to live up to their promises and grant women their right to education."
Bhutto Zardari,
Pakistan Foreign Minister.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵41
ProjectFearlessness •
If I am criticising the Taliban, I am criticising the Taliban.
This has nothing to do with Islam.
There's a zero tolerance policy on Islamophobia here. Don't even think about replying with your tropes and thinly veiled comments. I can spot you all a mile off.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵42
ProjectFearlessness •
IT'S NOT A METAPHOR!
It's the new law. Literally. As in literally.
Women's voices are no longer allowed to be heard in public.
"A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public."
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵43
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-vice-virtue-laws-women-9626c24d8d5450d52d36356ebff20c83
Afghanistan: Taliban bans women’s voices, bare faces in public under new law
AP NewsProjectFearlessness •
"It is mandatory for a woman to veil her body at all times in public and that a face covering is essential to avoid temptation and tempting others.
Women should veil themselves in front of all male strangers to avoid being corrupted. A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public.
It is forbidden for women to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa."
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵44
ProjectFearlessness •
Underground schools, local home schooling, and remote learning are all playing their part in ensuring schooling can continue. In 2023, Education Cannot Wait’s investments in Afghanistan reached nearly 200,000 girls and boys through community-based education programmes."
Gordon Brown
#AfghanGirlsVoices
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵45
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/gordon-brown-scottish-initiative-must-be-start-of-a-worldwide-effort-to-end-worst-violation-of-girls-rights-4750561
ProjectFearlessness •
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵46
https://www.afintl.com/en/202408253012
Women's Education Questions Off-Limits, Says Taliban Minister
Afghanistan InternationalProjectFearlessness •
Of course you didn’t.
#AfghanGirlsVoices
#LetAfghanGirlsLearn
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵46
https://qarawiyyinproject.co/2022/01/31/women-and-education-in-the-historical-muslim-world/
Women and Education in the Historical Muslim World
The Qarawiyyin ProjectProjectFearlessness •
Again
The Taliban are getting really busy spouting loads of dangerous nonsense while abandoning their promise to reopen girls schools. They are now even challenging people to prove women's education is compatible with Islam.
They seem to have forgotten that the world's oldest university was founded by a Muslim woman in the 9th century.
Lads, what are you doing? This is not Islam.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵47
https://www.eurasiareview.com/31122017-fatima-al-fihri-the-lady-who-founded-worlds-first-university-oped/
ProjectFearlessness •
There's no hard evidence to say she built the university. There's no hard evidence to say she didn't build the university, and no hard evidence to say who built the university if it wasn't her.
With no evidence, some historians keep an open mind. Others seem very keen to dismiss the possibility it could be true.
I wonder why.
🧵48
ProjectFearlessness •
They have banned all women in Afghanistan from laughing, either in public, or anywhere a man might be able to hear them.
Don't Laugh.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵50
https://www.gzeromedia.com/news/watching/un-taliban-criminalizes-sights-and-sounds-of-women
UN: Taliban criminalizes sights and sounds of women
Tasha Kheiriddin (GZERO Media)ProjectFearlessness •
Azadah Raz Mohammad,
Afghan Legal Advisor,
Atlantic Council.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵51
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/24/nx-s1-5087505/taliban-codifies-law-dictating-how-men-and-women-appear-in-public#:~:text=The%20law%20demands%20women%20must,it%20to%20me%20as%20horrific.
Taliban codifies law dictating how men and women appear in public
NPRProjectFearlessness •
They think they can get away with it because they are getting away with it. The international community are letting them get away with it.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵52
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/21/shutting-afghan-women-out-of-key-un-conference-to-appease-taliban-a-betrayal
ProjectFearlessness •
I have a wild theory about this. Hear me out.
Do you think, maybe, the Taliban might be afraid of being laughed at by women?
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵53
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/26/taliban-bar-on-afghan-women-speaking-in-public-un-afghanistan
ProjectFearlessness •
I always need a minute when I hear that name.
She's described in the article above as an Afghan human rights activist. There's nothing wrong with this description. It is a fair summary of who she is right now.
The part that I can't get my head round is that 3 years ago she was the Vice President of Afghanistan.
#FawziaKoofi
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵54
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniefillion/2022/09/01/one-year-after-leaving-afghanistan-fawzia-koofi-is-determined-to-go-back/
One Year After Leaving Afghanistan, Fawzia Koofi Is Determined To Go Back
Stéphanie Fillion (Forbes)ProjectFearlessness •
This is something that the leaders of the gender-apartheid regime fear the most."
Fawzia Koofi,
Politician and women’s rights activist who was the first woman vice-president of the Afghan parliament and chair of its women’s affairs and human rights commission.
#FawziaKoofi
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵55
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/27/un-doha-summit-taliban-afghan-women-rights
ProjectFearlessness •
Sometimes what the Taliban say is worse than what they do, sometimes what they do is worse than what they say. What they say and what they do also changes day to day depending on their ideological whims.
Am I bringing a complete and accurate picture on women's rights in Afghanistan here on this thread?
Hell No. I'm just trying my bestest.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵55
https://www.rferl.org/amp/afghanistan-taliban-press-freedom-journalists-media/32925395.html
This Is What It's Like To Be A Journalist Under Taliban Rule
Abubakar Siddique (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)ProjectFearlessness •
Nobody is predicting the Taliban will fall in the next couple of weeks, so, if I miss the scoop, I'll just have to get over it. I think I'd cope with that.
I'll leave you with this bit of light in the darkness, it's all about the secret undercover beauticians of Kabul.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵56
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/8/17/an-island-of-freedom-inside-the-secret-beauty-salons-of-afghanistan
‘An island of freedom’: Inside the secret beauty salons of Afghanistan
Al Jazeera Staff (Al Jazeera)ProjectFearlessness •
Countries must heed this call, and our government must do everything within its sphere of influence to ensure that this happens."
#FreeAfghanWomen
#EndGenderApartheid
🧵57
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/08/the-observer-view-on-afghanistan-britain-and-the-us-are-complicit-in-the-talibans-oppression-of-women
ProjectFearlessness •
The All-Afghan Women’s Summit is in stark contrast to a United Nations meeting in Doha, Qatar at the end of June on the future of Afghanistan which excluded women at the insistence of the Taliban."
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵58
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/09/bread-work-freedom/
Bread, Work, Freedom - Index on Censorship
Martin Bright (Index on Censorship)ProjectFearlessness •
Lindsey Hilsum.
#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵59
https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/09/silenced-afghan-women-raise-their-voices-in-hope/
Silenced Afghan women raise their voices in hope - Index on Censorship
Lindsey Hilsum (Index on Censorship)ProjectFearlessness •
"I had to come here even though I don’t know if I will be arrested when I return because otherwise what hope is there that things will change?
"We need to tell the world what they are doing to us.”
Anonymous attendee,
All Afghan Women Summit,
Tirana,
Albania.
#AllAfghanWomen
🧵60
https://amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/13/we-will-never-stop-fighting-why-afghan-women-have-risked-their-lives-to-attend-a-summit-in-tirana
‘We will never stop fighting’: why Afghan women have risked their lives to attend a summit in Tirana
Annie Kelly (The Guardian)Denis Buckley hat dies geteilt