The future of civilians in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has become the center of media attention the last few weeks after the U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew all U.S. troops, and the Taliban seized control of the country. However, most of the media coverage has been focused on either the Taliban or the American troops. The most critical part of Afghanistan has been ignored--the people. The Taliban being in control poses a large risk to essentially all Afghani people.
The most vulnerable group of Afghanis is the women. There is a lot of concern that girls will not have access to education. In provinces already under Taliban control, girls have been restricted from going to school. The Taliban says that they will not bar young women from attending school, but if the past is any prediction of the future, then this is not true. Assad Massoud Khistani, a Taliban commander, says that girls may continue their education but they must wear a hijab. Girls and women also face the large possibility of being forced to wear the burqa. The burqa is an Islamic form of clothing in which the wearer is covered from head to toe with a small mesh screen around the eyes to see out of. The niqab, hijab, and any other type of Islamic clothing are meant to be personal choices made by women, not by someone else. By mandating how women must dress, the Taliban is stripping away a basic human right from Afghani women.
Similarly, minority ethnic groups in Afghanistan also face severe persecution. The Hazaras, who are the third-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, have already faced discrimination by the Taliban. They are a Shia minority who have already been targeted by the Sunni majority countless times. In the 19th century, the Hazara were the largest ethnic group, but were massacred by the emir, reducing their population by over 60 percent. Since then, they have been the target of countless terror attacks by the Taliban and ISIS-K. Many Hazaras believe that the new Taliban administration is much worse than the old one and will be massacred. As a result, many are trying to flee to nearby Pakistan. Unfortunately, they are also at risk there, as they are persecuted by militant groups there too. Just this year, Hazara miners in Balochistan, a Pakistani province, were killed by ISIS. The Hazara face an almost certainity of genocide, and have nowhere to turn to.
So, what can we do to help? For starters, you can donate to relief organizations, like Women for Afghan Women and Women for Women International. You can sign a petition (https://act.hias.org/page/32505/action/1) urging the Biden administration to open the U.S. borders to Afghani refugees who face imminent danger. If you live in a different country, you too can urge your government and lawmakers to allow Afghan refugees into your country. As for removing the Taliban from power, Robert Crews, a Stanford historian who is an expert on Afghanistan, says that the pluralism, dynamism and cosmopolitanism that we can identify at key moments in the Afghan past are all resources that Afghan men and women can draw on
today in shaping a political future that may help them realize their aspirations for a more just and peaceful society. The fact of the matter is this: the U.S. has not fulfilled its promises to Afghanistan outlined by the Bush administration in 2001. Since then, millions of innocent Afghani lives have been lost and many have become refugees due to the war. It is the obligation of us, from our safe havens of peace, to help all the Afghani people in these times of horrifying uncertainty.