Anurag Kashyap Shares Afghan Filmmaker's Appeal To End The 'Silence', Here's Why It Makes Sense
Questioning the silence of international humanitarian organizations on the situation in Afghanistan and the legitimacy of the Doha peace talks, Karimi writes a heartfelt note.
The swift fall of Kabul and the Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan has left its people in deep distress. The situation is now compelling its people to appeal to the international community to end its silence.
AFP
Representing the community, an Afghan filmmaker penned down a heartbreaking note depicting the grim picture of the tragedy that the country confronts as the Taliban overrun it.
AFP
Questioning the silence of international humanitarian organizations on the situation in Afghanistan and the legitimacy of the Doha peace talks, Karimi writes,
Twitter
"We have grown accustomed to this silence, yet we know it is not fair. We know that this decision to abandon our people is wrong, that this hasty troop withdrawal is a betrayal of our people."
Sairaa Karimi, director-general of Afghan Film, the state-run film production company that has been around since 1968.
Reuters
In her letter, Karimi points out that the so-called peace talks had only emboldened the Taliban to step up their war against the legitimate government of Afghanistan and brutalize the people.
Warning of the imminent descent of her country into the dark days when the Taliban first ruled Afghanistan, Karimi says the "immense gains" made especially by the younger generation over the last 20 years "could be lost again" because of "this abandonment."
Highlighting what Taliban rule could mean for Afghanistan's creative community and its women, Karimi writes,
Twitter
"If the Taliban takes over, it will ban art. Other filmmakers and I could be next on their hit list. They will strip away women's rights, we will be pushed to the shadows, our homes, and our voices will be stifled into silence. Just in these few weeks, the Taliban have destroyed many schools, and two million girls are now forced out of school."
Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has extended his support to Karimi.
Twitter
He shared the note on Instagram.
Karimi writes passionately about the horrors the Taliban has been inflicting upon the people ¨C selling girls off as child brides to their fighters, gouging out the eyes of women who did not wear the "right" clothes, assassinating members of the government, notably the head of media and culture, as well as a comedian, a historian and a poet, and displacing hundreds of thousands of families, who are now living in unsanitary conditions in Kabul, their babies dying because there's no milk.
Karimi ends her open letter with an appeal to the world to stand behind people like her who will "stay and fight for my country."
"Will the world listen to her, or as she fears (but hopes against) "turn its back on us?"
After Taliban militants entered Kabul on Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani left the country saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed.
Many countries are sharing their stance against the Taliban's takeover and are now sending military flights to rescue nationals from Afghanistan.
(With ANI inputs)
