Shazneen Mistry
As the Taliban has taken control over Afghanistan, many activists are quite worried for the women, minorities, and human rights advocates living in the strife-torn country. This concern was shared on Twitter by Pakistani activist and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
She is the 24-year-old rights activist, who was shot in the head by Taliban militants in 2012 in Pakistan’s Swat region for her campaign for the education of girls, urged global and regional powers to call for an immediate ceasefire and provide help to civilians in Afghanistan. “We watch in complete shock as the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. I am deeply worried about women, minorities, and human rights advocates,” she tweeted on Sunday.
The longstanding war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Kabul before entering the city and took over the presidential palace, forcing embattled President Ashraf Ghani to join fellow citizens and foreigners to flee the country.
Global, regional and local powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide urgent humanitarian aid, and protect refugees and civilians said Malala, as she showed her concerns for the people staying there. She says this as she has personally faced the imposition of these Taliban’s who had even attempted to kill her many times because of the protest against their rule,
In 2007, the Islamist militants had taken over the area and imposed a brutal rule in Pakistan. Opponents were murdered, people were publicly flogged for supposed breaches of the sharia law, women were banned from going to market, and girls were stopped from going to school. The Taliban, who are opposed to the education of girls, have destroyed hundreds of schools in Pakistan.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, but following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the brutal regime of the militant group came to an end as they were removed from power by US-led forces in 2001. The group, however, has been on the offensive in recent months and has now seized power again.
People are really worried for all those who are stuck there under the Talabani’s rule who have banned people from doing many things especially women. It is as if being a woman there has become a crime in itself.
