A cry from the heart, rage and an unparalleled sorority exercise.
In a forum that we reveal, women artists, writers, activists, caregivers, politicians, business leaders ... all claim from the President of the Republic an "unconditional welcome" of Afghan women and their families, whose country is now beset by the ultra-rigorous Taliban regime.
From the actress and director, Agnès Jaoui, through the woman of letters, Virginie Despentes for the best known, or even women at RSA, all have initialed the text of a collective set up in 48 hours on Facebook: "Urgence for Afghan women and their families ”.
"Emmanuel Macron does not speak on our behalf when he talks about the French who are worried about a
new migratory flow
"
“We affirm that in the face of the absolute danger of rape, submission and death, for a country which claims to be enlightened and democratic, there is no other choice but to offer asylum without conditions, ”they insist. If only the first 50 signatories appear at the bottom of the document, more than 1,000 women, coming from all walks of life, have responded to the appeal launched by six activists from different causes (anti-Semitism, against the death penalty, against negrophobia. ..), unknown to the general public. “While men are doing geopolitics, we are here to remind us that women are writing to us from Afghanistan right now, to tell us that they are going to die. It's up to us to show them that democracy and the values of the Republic are better than the Taliban regime, ”said Nadia,accompanying disabled students, one of the six at the origin of the collective.
Read also Feminists in battle order to support Afghan women against the Taliban
And the latter to pin, in passing, the sentence of the Head of State who was controversial after his televised address on August 16.
During an update on the situation in Afghanistan, he then stated that he wanted to protect Europe “from significant migratory flows”.
"We decide that Emmanuel Macron does not speak on our behalf when he talks about the French who are worried about a" new migratory flow ": on the contrary, we are worried that it does not take place and that our Afghan sisters , and their relatives, die slaughtered, raped, massacred in Afghanistan.
Or drowned, or exhausted on the dangerous roads of exile.
Or here, finally, in a slum, ”they retort.
For this text, the women signatories, "of all differences, of all schools, of all social and political spheres" have put aside what opposes them.
They decided to "bury the hatchet" to participate in this "wave of solidarity" which is comparable to the #MeToo movement, denouncing gender-based and sexual violence against women.
“We decide, together, to stand up, because what we want for ourselves, freedom and equality, can only be won if all win it, without distinction of origin, religion or borders.
"
The full text of the signatories
Love, not war - Unconditional welcome from Afghan women
We feminists and women of all genders, of all differences, of all schools, of all social and political spheres, today we decide to bury the hatchet and geopolitics and stand up in one. objective: life and freedom for Afghan women, the opening of our borders and the unconditional welcome of our sisters and their families.
We decide, together, to close our ears to all the arguments of
realpolitik
, to all the men - starting with our president - who will always find a thousand reasons to do nothing and not to be the country of women's rights, them who have always found excuses not to be that of human rights.
We decide, together, to proclaim loud and clear: the heart has its reasons that reason knows. We affirm that in the face of the absolute danger of rape, submission and death, for a country which claims to be enlightened and democratic, there is no other choice but to offer unconditional asylum. .
We decide, together, to stand up, because what we want for ourselves, freedom and equality, can only be won if all win it, without distinction of origin, religion or borders. We decide that the words of the men who want to shut the door on Afghan women do not scare us. We decide that Emmanuel Macron does not speak on our behalf when he talks about the French who are worried about a "new migratory flow": on the contrary, we are worried that it does not take place and that our Afghan sisters, and their relatives, die slaughtered, raped, massacred in Afghanistan. Or drowned, or exhausted on the dangerous roads of exile. Or here, finally, in a slum.
This has happened already, and for years, because, even before the victory of the Taliban, each refusal of asylum requests for Afghans who applied for it, on the pretext that they were not in danger, was already a lie and a denial of rights. This is already happening, because our country has preferred to finance soldiers, weapons and an occupation, rather than human rights development initiatives and the reception here of people in exile.
Twenty years after the military intervention in Afghanistan, all those who had power in France agree at least on one point: the war has been very expensive and has served no purpose. However, while this unanimously shared observation should lead them to review their copies, the gentlemen who govern us once again only have the war against terrorism to propose. A war in the name of which we should silence all “good feelings” and hide behind the barbed wire of Frontex to face the terrible “migratory flow”.
This is how, despite human rights, Europe and France, so proud of their democratic values, consider these women who come to us, precisely because they believe in it, to seek refuge for their families, their freedom and their projects. of life. A "flow of dirty water", these women in search of a future for themselves and for their little daughters who dream of school benches? A threat, these women who have always faced an obscurantism that our leaders claim to fight by agitating fear, which in turn plays into the hands of another obscurantism, that of the extreme right?
We feminists and women do not see an influx but an influx of hope.
We are not at war.
Against the Taliban and their violence, we demand that we oppose the only weapons that are worthy, those that some call "values of the Republic" only to better betray them.
Realism is the motto written on the pediment of mixed schools: "Liberty, equality, fraternity."
"
And if our politicians do not want to seize the fraternity, if they are not able to put aside their oppositions as Sartre and Aron had done, then it is up to us to keep the international sorority alive, to launch again a wave of solidarity, comparable to that which #metoo was, for our Afghan sisters.
What we want, we want it for everyone.
Let us mobilize for the absolute emergency reception of Afghan women, their relatives and people of gender and sexual orientation minorities.
For humanitarian visas in absolute urgency, and as many as will be requested, for the immediate relaxation of the conditions necessary for family reunification, for the immediate suspension of the Dublin agreements and for the issuance of residence permits for all those who are already in France.
Since the comparison to the Vietnam War is used by all political commentators, then the time has come for realism in motion, the one who won by saying "Love, not war".
Unconditional welcome, not deadly geopolitics and its borders.
The first 50 signatories:
Nadia Meziane Assistant for students with disabilities, activist against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, Crest Lines
Marie Bardiaux-Vaïente Comic book author and historian - Feminist activist and for the universal abolition of the death penalty
Clémence Lossone Afro-feminist activist, author
Marie-Laure Malric Actor, member of the CNR (collective for a nation of refuge)
Léonie Bureau Life educator (emotional and sexual health), family planning activist and other feminist collectives, anti-racist and mother of a large family
Gaëlle Hersent Comic book author
Virginie Despentes Writer
Agnès Jaoui Director and actress
Paul B. Preciado Philosopher
Cécile Gonçalves Doctor of Political Studies from EHESS
Marie-France Moralès-Berger Specialist retired anti-racist feminist activist
Amélie Cohen-Langlais Deputy Mayor of Bègles, union activist
Emmanuelle Marchand Professor of Letters, Deputy Mayor of Marmande
Amandine Thiriet Actress and singer, president of the Les Matermittentes collective
Gaëlle Desliens School teacher in Tourcoing (REP + deep it seems), logistics member of Migraction59 (citizen accommodation platform for people in exile trapped in Calais)
Worms Sandrine, coordinator and volunteer Asso Solidarité Migrants Moselle (and, incidentally, project manager Support victim of human trafficking / and exit from prostitution in a CIDFF
Delphine Cerisuelo Teacher
Maeve Juliette Précaire (AAH), activist, queer, ecofeminist and antifa - WordPress blog @handicapinvincible and a long post / journal on psychiatry in times of pandemic published this year on Ligne De Crêtes
· Maïc Jolu-Planques Graphic designer and designer, queer feminist activist, 2 articles and a co-translation published on ridges.
Elishéva Gottfarstein Cultural mediator and archivist
Carole-Ann Banach Engineer and comic book author
Capucine Hauray Nurse, Departmental Co-President of a feminist popular education association, elected municipal in Saint-Nazaire (44)
Carole Collinet-Appéré Journalist and union activist
Maud Delanaud Unemployed, volunteer in associations, feminist and anti-racist activist
Charlotte Monasterio Artist photographer
Leslie Tychsem Fashion designer
Wiecha Koralewska Covid Survivor, 95
Lara Louisa Lotte Boulangère, anthropologist, ridge line member
Sandrine Rousseau Candidate for the ecological primary
Céline Bureau Artist, precarious
Jeanne Puchol Comic book author, union activist, feminist
Sylvie Taussig Writer, CNRS researcher, translator
· Pascale Morel Professor, coordinator of the "History, memory and future of Europe" project
Ruth Zylberman Director
Sarah Ecoffet-Chartier Engineer, feminist activist
Marion Fourtune Environmental activist, feminist
Aurore Cyrille Human rights activist
Romane Elineau Member of Paris D'exil
Heloïse Nio Co-founder of the Thot school
Agathe Nadimi Professor of higher education and founder of the association les midis du MIE committed to the exiles
Anne Tempelhoff Sculptrice, activist for a dignified reception of refugees
Maryam Karimi Afghan Journalist
Martine de Gaudemar University professor
Judith Aquien Co-founder of the Thot school, feminist author
Marie Bellosta Editor
Giulia Foïs Journalist
Salomé Lelouch Actress and director
Catherine Raffait Sociologist EHESS and activist for Roma rights
Cécile Duflot Former Minister of Equality of Territories and Housing
Maud Vandoolaeghe Assistant to the director of the Refugees, Housing and Humanism center
