Let's not let this happen to Afghan women

At the end of this month of August, the last US troops will leave Afghanistan, with the exception of the detachments in charge of evacuating, through the Kabul airport, diplomatic personnel and the several thousand Afghan collaborators who will find asylum in the United States.

Spain is also organizing its small joint operation between Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs, to evacuate some 40 Afghans and their families who helped the Spanish troops who were stationed there for several years and who are now exposing themselves to the safe revenge of the Taliban.

More information

• Fear invades Afghanistan: "No one helped us stop the Taliban"

"The Afghans have to fight for themselves," US President Joe Biden said a few days ago. And the Afghans? What will become of the women who, since 2001, with the invasion of US and NATO troops, returned to schools and are now teachers, journalists, doctors, nurses, secretaries, policemen, councilors or deputies? 25% of the current Kabul Parliament are women; more than 100,000 are on local councils.

How are they going to defend themselves?

How are the proud and unhappy Afghan teenagers who appeared days ago on the streets of Ghor province wielding old rifles and defying the imminent arrival of the Taliban to defend themselves?

Are they the ones who will have to defeat an army that the entire United States has not been able to control?

What will become of all of them?

Has no one in the White House or in the UN gotten sick when they heard that the Taliban commitment to these women is to "guarantee their rights in accordance with Islam"?

The Taliban are not Islam, but a political-religious ideology with an extraordinary component of oppression of women and there is overwhelming evidence of this.

The stories of British journalist Emma Graham Harrison for

They are full of admiration for these determined women, but they do not hide their panic at the tragedy that lies ahead. The displays of strength and courage of the adolescents and of the mothers who tried to educate them in freedom are also a sign of their fear and despair at the abandonment in which they remain. The Taliban have not changed: they continue to regard women as inferior human beings who cannot claim or exercise the same rights as men. Journalists like Graham Harrison give testimony every day of what happens in the territories that are falling into their power: women are not allowed to go out on the streets without the company of a male relative, they cannot go to public schools or to public schools. general hospitals, they cannot work and must be fully covered (

).

On August 10,

published an unsigned article written by a young 22-year-old journalist: “Two days ago I fled my home in northern Afghanistan due to the arrival of the Taliban in my city… I continue to flee and there is no safe place for me… Last week I was a journalist, today I can't even say my name… I'm scared and I don't know what will happen to me… All my colleagues are terrified… please pray for me ”.

Perhaps, in addition to praying, women around the world could do something more, before the greatest of shame falls on all of us. We already know that when women's rights are crushed somewhere in the world, only one thing can be trusted: the force, the fury of other women. Let us not allow what is about to happen to happen. Let us claim the right to asylum for fleeing Afghan women, be they thousands or tens of thousands. Let us support with money, with volunteer work, as we can, all the associations and organizations that can send them help to resist. Let us demand that our deputies and ministers organize and act. Let's mobilize now, now and with all the fury of which we are capable. Let's not allow it.