This thread is focused on Afghan women and girl's rights, but I haven't forgotten about LGBT rights in Afghanistan (Spoiler: There are none)

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.

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#FreeAfghanWomen
#TransRightsAreHumanRights

https://8am.media/eng/under-the-taliban-rule-transgender-individuals-treated-as-sexual-slaves/

The history and politics of Afghanistan is complicated and often misunderstood. It's hard to agree upon.

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.)

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#FreeAfghanWomen

You might be surprised to know that women in Afghanistan first won the right to vote in 1919, a year after the U.K. and a year before the U.S.

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

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https://ppr.lse.ac.uk/articles/10.31389/lseppr.59

People say that the U.S. and U.K. intervention in Afghanistan was a colonialist attempt to impose western democracy, and the Taliban returned the country to it's natural state, tribal, warlike and backwards.

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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What's that?

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.

1.4 Million girls in Afghanistan don't receive a secondary education. If that sounds like a big number and is hard to visualize, let's put it another way.

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/

"At least 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan have been denied access to secondary education since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

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

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https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-girls-education-access-taliban/33079700.html

FREE AFGHAN WOMEN

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

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"I took my burqa and had it cut and sewn into wings in order to show that transformation and change can be possible, even in the most oppressive situations."

Manizha Talash,
Afghan,
Olympic Refugee Team Breakdancer,
(disqualified)

#FreeAfghanWomen

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"Not long after learning I was going to the Olympics, I kept thinking about the girls in Afghanistan. For me, I have always had to balance pursuing my dreams with the humanitarian situation in my country.
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

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https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/64387/1/free-afghan-women-manizha-bgirl-talash-taking-fight-olympic-stage-disqualified

"As aid budgets shrink, humanitarian workers and resources are stretched even further, and the punishment is felt most by women already suffering from persecution. The international community must instead empower us to help the millions of Afghan women still living in the country, keeping politics and humanitarian aid distinct and apart. Here at home, we are fighting to be heard."

Anonymous female Afghan aid worker.

#FreeAfghanWomen

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/15/afghanistan-taliban-women-struggle-female-aid-worker

Anyway, this is a rolling thread of news from and about Afghanistan and Afghan refugees.

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

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https://www.ein.org.uk/news/afghan-families-separated-during-2021-kabul-military-evacuation-can-now-apply-be-reunited-uk

Every time I post about Afghanistan, it usually contains some uncomfortable truths, about all of us. Just because we don't want to hear it, doesn't make it any less true.

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

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Every time I post about Afghanistan, my heart breaks as I realize I have no real news to post about. It's just an update about how the lives and rights of women and girls in Afghanistan are constantly decreasing, while at the same time international aid is constantly decreasing.

All this time, and it's just tumbleweeds rolling across the world stage.

#FreeAfghanWomen

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Every time I post about Afghanistan, I remember how nearly every time I post about Afghanistan, I will get a reply from an American saying the Republicans are just like the Taliban.

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

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Every time I post about Afghanistan, I remember how the 'radical' left treat Muslim issues like playthings, to be picked up when it suits them and dropped as soon as they can't make any political capital out of them.

(🤚Hi, Owen)

#FreeAfghanWomen

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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

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