Afghanistan - Blog Posts

I know the new Hunger Games book announcement is exciting. But in what world are we hearing more about a book announcement than we are about the bombing of 40 children in a UN school-turned-refugee shelter? These two events occurred on the same day. Only one is being widely spoken about in the media.

Let’s not forget why Suzanne Collins wrote the series in the first place. One night, she was watching TV, flipping back and forth between coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a reality-TV show. That's when she had the idea that would ultimately turn into The Hunger Games.

Please don’t let pop culture distract you from a genocide.

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Don’t Let History Repeat Itself!

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Help out Afghanistan, please

“Perhaps you have forgotten. That’s one of the great problems of our modern world, you know. Forgetting. The victim never forgets. Ask an Irishman what the English did to him in 1920 and he’ll tell you the day of the month and the time and the name of every man they killed. Ask an Iranian what the English did to him in 1953 and he’ll tell you. His child will tell you. His grandchild will tell you. And when he has one, his great-grandchild will tell you too. But ask an Englishman—” He flung up his hands in mock ignorance. “If he ever knew, he has forgotten. ‘Move on!’ you tell us. ‘Move on! Forget what we’ve done to you. Tomorrow’s another day!’ But it isn’t, Mr. Brue.” He still had Brue’s hand. “Tomorrow was created yesterday, you see. That is the point I was making to you. And by the day before yesterday, too. To ignore history is to ignore the wolf at the door.” - A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré

Want a career that rewards you for your hard work? Cross a few of these low-earning careers off your list, and try these related, higher-paying alternatives instead.

How The U.S. Stole the Middle East

“Hoping that you come back, so we can reach our love.”

Absolutely ALL eyes on Afghanistan.

Islamic men are literally banning women.

Women are denied proper education. They are forced to cover their entire body. They have no freedom of speech. They aren't even allowed to talk to each other. Their voices are now against the law. They can not sing, they can not shout.

After Taliban's takeover in 2021, Afghan women have been trapped in hell. "I was someone who was always out and about, who was very active in society. Now I'm stuck in the four walls of a house."

Cutting women out of workforce also led the country into deeper poverty, according to Global News. Girls and women are being sold like cattle so families can put food on the table. The insanely brave women participating in protests, fighting for their rights, face extreme punishment.

This has been going on for years and needs to be talked more about. Please make donations and/or spread the word. Do not shut up about it, do not get distracted.

India and five Central Asian nations backed peace process in Afghanistan. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj reaffirmed New Delhi’s commitment to economic reconstruction of the war-torn country. #afghanistan #peace #centralasia (at Karol Baag, New Delhi) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsmoncsDoRK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=dicqpgnv8mlp

#RIPAnja Pulitzer winning AP Photographer killed in Afghanistan... search Google for her amazing war & sports photos. War takes another angel :(

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/04/photojournalist-anja-niedringhaus-killed-in-afghanistan/100710/

http://www.anjaniedringhaus.com/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ap-photographer-anja-niedringhaus-killed-in-afghanistan-a-look-at-her-work/2014/04/04/78c21954-bbf7-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_gallery.html#item0

School children pass by a graffiti reading, “ballot not bullet” on their way back home on the outskirts of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

story by Kathy Gannon:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/afghan-race-wooing-votes-ethnic-strongme

« Exploring Kabul, I found, required the same principles that help in the reading of mystical Persian poetry, in the relationship between the zahir, or the overt, and the batin, the hidden or implied. This works on the tacit understanding that what is being said is an allegory for what is meant or intended. To talk of the moon, for instance, is to talk of the beloved; to talk of clouds across the moon is to talk of the pain of separated lovers; to talk of walls is to speak of exile. Such wandering leads through circuitous routes to wide vistas of understanding. Like walking through a small gate into a large garden. It is also a useful reminder that in this city, what is seen is often simply one aspect of the truth. What lies behind – the shadow city – is where layers are revealed. »

Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul, Taran N. Khan

« I have a complicated relationship with walking. This has a lot to do, I suspect, with having grown up in Aligarh, a city in northern India, where walking on the streets came with intense male scrutiny, and the sense of being in a proscribed space. As a woman stepping out into its thoroughfares, I needed a reason to place my body on the street. I learned to display a posture of ‘work’ while walking, and to erase any signs that may hint at my being out for pleasure, for no reason at all other than to walk. All this means I see walking as a luxury, not something to be taken for granted. It is an act of autonomy and mobility I learned early to seize as a form of pleasure. I also grew adept at the allied skill of reading my terrain, looking out for signs that told me if it was open, or off-limits.

Being told not to walk was another way in which Kabul felt familiar. To map the city, I drew on the same knowledge and intuition that had helped me navigate the streets of my home town. Which is why, unlike the maps of guidebooks that seek to make checklists and establish authority, the routes I took were wandering and idiosyncratic. They were not trajectories of efficiency leading to a predetermined destination, nor were they maps of authority or delineation, offering control or explanation. These were routes of discovery – maps of being lost. To be lost is a way to see a place afresh, a way to reimagine a terrain that feels known. To be lost in Kabul is to find it – as a place of richness and possibility. »

Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul, Taran N. Khan

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One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.

— Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

I cannot tell you how bad the situation in Afghanistan is. After 20 years, US troops are leaving Afghanistan and NOTHING HAS CHANGED. In just this month alone, the Taliban have taken control of 8 provinces. And now it's being predicted that the Taliban will take control of Kabul as early as this month.

For the love of God, I never beg for anyone to reblog anything but please please please reblog this. Do not wait until the Taliban takes over the capital of my family's home country, and do not wait until Al Qaeda attacks the US again.

Kabul in 1968.

Hosseini, Khaled. And the Mountains Echoed.

transcription:

Afghan women in medical school are heard sobbing as a man announces a new Taliban edict that bans them from medical training.

The Taliban have also banned women from being treated by male medical professionals.

These two decrees, coupled together, effectively prohibit women from receiving any type of medical care since there will be no female health workers to treat them.