Looking at the condition there, we need to ask ourselves – do we value our freedom enough? It’s time we start respecting our freedom.
India fought the British for freedom, but in Afghanistan, the people are fighting their own people for freedom.
In India, though we have freedom, women are still subjected to violence, assault, rape. We need to overcome these issues if we want all to leave in peace.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemakrponn
On August 15, 2021, we celebrated our 75th Independence Day and the same day, the Taliban captured the Afghan capital Kabul. Their fear was so much that President Ashraf Ghani himself fled the country.
Almost in the blink of an eye, Afghanistan changed this week. The worst price will be paid by young Afghans who grew up in the wake of 9/11.
For all the corruption and inefficiency of the government, the decades since have seen historically unprecedented gains in education, employment and incomes. Women—often denied an education under the Taliban and subjected to horrific human rights violations—were the biggest beneficiaries.
Now, their hopes and dreams have disintegrated.
The fallout probably won’t be immense: even though India’s borders, on the map, extend to Afghanistan, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in fact, lies in between the two countries, which provides something of a geographical cushion.
What was disheartening to see was the people scrambling to board a flight to flee the country. Some even climbed onto the aeroplanes only to die of a fall. Such is the fear of the Taliban in that country.
Today in Afghanistan, the ambitions of every girl, every woman has come came crashing down. Women are too scared to go out and worried about the future.
The U.N. refugee agency says nearly 250,000 Afghans have fled their homes since the end of May amid fears the Taliban would reimpose their strict and ruthless interpretation of Islam, all but eliminating women’s rights.
Eighty per cent of those displaced are women and children.
The fundamentalist group ruled the country for five years until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. During that time, it forbade girls’ education and the right to work and refused even to let them travel outside their homes without a male relative to accompany them.
The Taliban also carried out public executions, chopped off the hands of thieves and stoned women accused of adultery.
Many girls in Afghanistan today are considering that they will not be able to return to work; their daughters will not continue going to school.
Looking at the condition there, we need to ask ourselves – do we value our freedom enough? It’s time we start respecting our freedom.
India fought the British for freedom, but in Afghanistan, the people are fighting their own people for freedom.
In India, though we have freedom, women are still subjected to violence, assault, rape. We need to overcome these issues if we want all to leave in peace.