Afghan Journalists pray for Asylum,’not Pakistan’/ Rashmi Talwar /Kashmir Images

THE KASHMIR IMAGES

Afghan Journalists pray for Asylum, ‘not Pakistan’

by Rashmi Talwar

Journalist Alyssa Jan is sitting in Kabul at her paternal grandfather’s aunt’s place. She arrived in the dead of the night from Baghlan on August 14 – ironically the day marked and celebrated as Pakistan’s Independence, a country she blames for snatching the joy of Afghanistan, in her lifetime. On this night marking her neighboring country’s freedom- ‘Unfortunately’, she says, “My freedom is doomed forever this day onwards, in my own country”.

Talking to The Kashmir Images, from Kabul, Alyssa is a woman, a bold journalist, and remains un-hijabed, by choice. All these boons ‘unfortunately’ are transformed into banes with the first ray of sun of 15^th August  that spells doom for her, her gender, her ilk and her family. This mid-August Day that spells the dawn of India’s Independence Day celebrations, a country she loves as most Afghans do.

Incidentally, hers and most of other Afghan’s style of conversation starts on a luck-scale with words like -‘Fortunately’ or ‘Unfortunately’; Life for Afghans indeed is not only perilous but pendulous, oscillating wildly on the luck factor.

Ask her about her present condition, and she says- “Fortunately, my father and brother drove me here on my insistence. Since I and my brother are the only earning members of the family, we could get our way. It was a horrendous fearful journey that lasted 9-hours, circumventing check posts being taken over by Taliban,  as the transition of power to the oppressor was taking place, albeit sluggishly, as dust winds swept large swathes of barren landscape enroute. We reached my aunt’s house in Kabul and were sneaked in”.

She continues –“While my family members stayed in Kabul for few days to ensure that I may get onto a flight from Kabul airport, they were forced to leave seeing the futility of situation and the dangers during their own return journey. I refused to go with them. I tried every which way to get out of Afghanistan, writing application for visa, networking with fellow journalists but each one was loaded with their own sufferings  and desperately looking at their own safety, family and connections to zoom to another country for freedom”.

Another journalist inserted –“Unfortunately, we two being from a different province the local Kabul journalists were at an advantage and we at a disadvantage. Kabul based journalists were more adept at networking, connections, knowhow, had information access, additionally also knew surreptitious routes to Kabul airport, which we did not.”

A male journalist who too tried to reach a flight out of Kabul but failed contended –“Unfortunately, things turned horrendous day by day with blackened faces of women’s posters on show windows of beauty parlors, billboards and Ads. Several desperate Afghans wanting to leave Afghanistan were killed in Asadabad as Taliban fired on the crowd waving national flags of Afghanistan after tearing down Taliban’s white flags.  Two loaded bomb blasts on the airport and the entire place turned into bloodied-limbs hell. Unfortunately, the blasts sealed our fate too, as they halted evacuation and several other operations”.

The NATO forces left in the dead of the night of 30 August just before the clock chimed in the next day of the deadline dawn of 31^st August 2021!                  Ratt-a-Tatt from automatic weapons – echoed and droned around hills throughout the deathly silence of that day and night, in a victory Celebratory fire.

“Were Pakistan be the only option to save your life, will you go?” I asked

“Unfortunately, I hate to say this, but I hate Pakistan and would try to save myself in other ways. It is not easy to say but I would rather die in Afghanistan than go to Pakistan abegging”, a woman journalist chips in.

Another fellow male journalist aired hesitancy. “I would go to Pakistan but only with a job opportunity, never otherwise.”

“Will you come to India?” I insert.

“Yes! Yes!” They chorus in unison on Zoom talk, their smiles and eyes lighting up, soon to look forlorn again. “Fortunately, we can go to any English speaking country of the world, because many of us know the language, rest is Khuda’s marzi,” one of the journalists sums it for all of them.

 Unaware of the worldly view of their plight, Alyssa sings us a song ‘Mei Tujhe Qabool, Tu Mujhe Qabool’ to reinforce her love for Indians and Bollywood. The song was from film ‘Khuda Gawah’, the last Indian mega movie shot in Afghanistan.

India is loved by Afghans due to its sensibilities, its syncretic, plural and inclusive culture and also bold Indian Muslims like Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah who took strong exception to a section of Indian Muslims who celebrated the capture of power by Taliban in Afghanistan. The actor openly expressed extreme displeasure over the euphoria by the section of Indian Muslims saying that even as the return of Taliban in Afghanistan is a cause for deep concern for the world, the celebration of barbarians by a section of Indian Muslims is no less dangerous.

He asked every Indian Muslim to ask themselves- if they want a reformed modern Islam or the barbaric values of the past? “I am an Indian Muslim and as Mirza Ghalib said years ago, my relationship with God is informal, I don’t need a politicized religion!” Naseeruddin tweeted in a video message.

Alyssa’s bid to get on a flight from Kabul airport is shattered even as she had banked entirely on the fact that she was allotted a USAID project related to strengthening role of women in Afghan society. “They have left us to our fate, I am deathly scared now”, she laughed, as if it was a joke.

On an aside, Alyssa needs to be more fearful, as the back channels are floating heavy with rumors, that  Taliban are contemplating to create ‘Female Madrassas’ to radicalize entire families to forward their Jihad agenda.

Changing the topic to a lighter tone, Alyssa relates to us about her grandmother talking about Nawroz- the Parsi New Year celebrations. The Nowruz tradition is over 3,000 years old and was widely observed in Afghanistan, as a happy occasion with arrival of spring solstice on March 21^st.  “Baghlan, my home province is the historic site of the Fire Temple ruins of Parsis of Iran, in Afghanistan”, she adds.

“My grandmother says -The ‘Guli Surkh Festival’ (Red flower or Tulip Festival) during Nowruz, was the highpoint. It was celebrated with songs and swinging while preparing delicious cuisine of ‘Samanak’-a special dish made of sprouting wheat, symbolically ushering in new beginnings. ‘Haft Mewa’ – a salad of seven dry fruits including walnuts, almonds, prunes, pistachios hazelnuts, and plums with Kulcha-e-Nowruzi cookie and Mahi wa Jelabi a dish of Fish, being the highlights. Men played a game of Buzkashi – Men on horsebacks use a goat carcass as ball to score goals, besides which people visited Blue Mosque of Mazar-i-Sharif- a symbol of Peace.  

“These times were moments of joy, merriment and outing however, other than the two Eids, every happy occasion has been sacrificed. We are at the whims and fancies of trigger hungry Taliban who wave their guns at any hint of entertainment, digressing even slightly from Islam”, says one.

Meantime, Rag-tag, shaggy, wild-bearded, stoned, light-menacing-eyed, Gun-toting Taliban baby-clutch M-16 and M4 Rifles and Carbines, leftovers from NATO forces and scan offices lists of employees to make notes of women employees.  Alyssa’s colleagues inform her about how they have made off with the list of employee names.

 Male journalists are also on the lens of the Taliban. They are being hounded for abandoning their place of work. It is assumed by Taliban that these journalists who didn’t report for work were purportedly reporting against Taliban and were seeking asylum to save themselves from brutal punishments.

At Kabul near the airport, other journalists have preferred to change their appearance to look like disinterested men, and merge with the ordinary public instead of standing out with their neat appearance. Few were luckily whisked away in the aircrafts including women journalists. Many await their turn, hoping that Almighty may make them ‘Fortunate.

To this painful time in history a poem by Ellen Bass, reproduced below is apt and elevating.

The Thing Is ….

by Ellen Bass

to love life, to love it even

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you’ve held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you like

your own flesh

Only more of it, an obesity of grief,

You think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face,

 No charming smile, no violet eyes,

And you say, yes, I will take you

 I will love you, again.

url:https://epaper.thekashmirimages.com/epaper/m/80155/6132913585244

PS: All names and other giveaways have been changed to protect Afghan Journalists

Rashmi Talwar is an independent journalist and can be reached at  email:

rashmitalwarno1@gmail.com

Dr Arvinder Chamak was co-host at the interview session

6th Ministerial Heart of Asia Conf/ Rashmi Talwar/ Daily Kashmir Images

Afghan Girl Exposes the US/ Rashmi Talwar/ Rising Kashmir

Brave Afghan girl exposes the US

Afghan girl exposes the US 

Rashmi Talwar

No veil, no dupatta, not even a scarf, Heela Faryal (not her real name), in her early twenties, came wearing a buttoned Purple long sleeved Kurta and straight black pants with silver slippers. Curious Karachi college girls went up to Heela- Afghanistan’s lone woman participant in a conference on women, but the latter swiftly turned, avoiding any selfies with the excited girls. It was not for her to exchange phone numbers or emails. She remained quiet even as her glowing face with a halo of dark curly hair on her shoulders failed to hide her youthful enthusiasm.

Heela, appeared stoic, as the only international speaker other than me from India, but her eyes were soft and smiling, choosing to get photographed only with speakers who had been informed to avoid any publication of her photograph owing to threat to her life.

Real time yardstick of a progressive nation comes from how their women are treated. The land of Heela’s forefathers in Afghanistan had been so unforgiving; it made her highly strung and secretive. Losing trust in human beings and simple humanity can be very, very shattering. This was Heela Faryal member of secret action group for women RAWA (Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan).

“No, I can’t tell you my real name,” she pleaded even though I was an international speaker like her. “No, I cannot even give you my phone number, please”, she supplicated, when I asked her.

She traveled to Karachi from Kabul, Afghanistan for the “‘Hum Aurtaen’ – No more Violence” programme by Tehrik-E- Niswan, a woman’s cultural action group based in Pakistan, headed by its stunning danseuse, actor and director Sheema Kermani.

Heela, a Muslim, yet didn’t feel one with those in Pakistan- who had freely come to attend the conference. In her country Afghanistan women were ensconced in the home space, treated brutally and worse than any other nation.

On stage, UK-read Heela, delivered her written content in English, without flinching she stirred the youthful women audience, with the unfolding of instances of Afghan women laid silent by horrendous torture and heinous killings over minor aberrations.

She introduced herself as a member of RAWA- oldest organization in Afghanistan that fights for rights of women, social rights and freedom while taking a stand against the Afghan fundamentalists and their international backers.

Naturally she was on their hit-list!

Heela related to the audience about Afghanistan’s most horrific crime ever committed against a 26-year woman in 2015. – “It was not inside the darkness and closed doors of her husband or father’s home. It was in broad daylight, in central Kabul, under the nose of local policemen and government, when Farkhunda, a young Islamic studies student, was encircled and lynched by a mob who accused her of burning the Quran. Brutally kicked, her hair yanked, spitted upon, punched and stomped, veil ripped off her face, bludgeoned with stones outside the mosque, the mob then dragged her motionless body some 300 meters into a street and her corpse was run over with a car and set afire. Her bloodied clothes couldn’t catch fire and the men threw their own clothing topis and scarves to burn her. The hideous remains were thrown in the dry Kabul River. Farkhunda’s crime: She had argued with a mullah, who then falsely accused her of burning the Quran.”

The audience was deathly silent and attentive. It was a chilling account.

It was on record, that a number of prominent public officials turned to social networking site Facebook immediately after Farkhunda’s gruesome killing, to endorse the act. The Deputy Minister for Culture & Information Afghanistan -Simin Ghazal Hasanzada approved the execution, wrote- “Working for the infidels.” The official spokesman of Kabul police Hashmat Stanekzai wrote “Farkhunda- thought, like several other unbelievers, that this kind of action and insult will get them U.S. or European citizenship. But before reaching their target, they lost their life.” Zalmai Zabuli, chief of the complaints commission of upper house of parliament, posted a picture of Farkhunda with this message: “This is the horrible and hated person who was punished by our Muslim compatriots for her action. Thus, they proved to her masters that Afghans want only Islam and cannot tolerate imperialism, apostasy, and spies.”

Pausing and taking a deep breath, Heela took up for another 19-year- old Rukhshana, stoned to death in a mud pit by a Taliban kangaroo court in a Mullah-dominated western province of Afghanistan, for eloping last year. “Her screams echoed as an angry crowd of Taliban threw rocks at her, ending her in a stoned silence”.

“Treatment of women in Afghanistan would put even cannibals to shame”, some whispered in the audience.

She spoke out about women in Afghanistan crushed by several demonic forces including – the US and its allies, Jehadists, Taliban, and now the ISIS.” Coming down heavily on America she contended- “The US used women’s rights as an excuse to invade my country Afghanistan and continues to kill innocent women and children and conduct their terrifying drone attacks and chilling night raids in all parts of Afghanistan. The biggest crime the US has committed is the installation of fundamentalists in a puppet government.”

Without a blink, she pointed to the alleged black sheep in the government made with US support- “Afghanistan’s National Unity Government is headed by long-time CIA mercenaries-Ashraf Ghani (current President of Afghanistan) and Abdullah Abdullah (CE of Afghanistan), after US Secretary of state-John Kerry brokered a deal.” And added-“Abdullah Abdullah is one of the leaders of the most infamous fundamentalist parties of Afghanistan, Shoraye Nizar.”

She further accused–“Afghanistan’s current government, Parliament, and judiciary are all occupied at highest positions by criminals, heinous fundamentalists and warlords implicated in grave war crimes, and enjoy unconditional backing of western powers”. Adding more names to the alleged black list she pointed out – Mohammad Noor (Governor of Balkh Province ), Karim Khalil Dostum (former Vice President of  Afghanistan), Mohammed Mohaqiq (a politician), Sarwar Danish (former Vice President of Afghanistan), Ustad Murad, Ahmad Khan, Alimi Balkhi (Minister of Refugees& Repatriation ), Taj M. Mujahid.”

The names except for Afghanistan’s present president Ashraf Ghani didn’t register with the Pakistani audience much, but most understood they were one of the top crème of the government in Afghanistan.

Taking a piercing dig at the Afghanistan Parliament, Heela lamented-“In 2009 Afghanistan Parliament attempted to legalize marital rape!”

The question in many minds arose –“How could they even ‘attempt’ such a law with the US looking over their shoulder?”

The audience was clearly reminded of a recent protest against the new Pakistani law called the ‘Punjab Protection of women against violence, Act’ that saw a coalition of 30 religious and political parties declaring the law un-Islamic and an attempt to secularize Pakistan- a country evolved on theological lines.

Heela meantime, quoting a UN report said -“According to United Nations, the Taliban’s reach is widest today since 2001. The suicide attacks by Taliban, and constant war with Afghan government has made life hell and civilian deaths in 2015 were highest, majority being women.

While public executions, stoning and amputation are widespread, the Taliban are welcomed with open arms to join the government instead of putting them on trial,” she trailed off in a stoic voice.

I am sure it was not hard in Pakistan to understand how their political dispensations segregation of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban to further their agendas in many countries, had aggravated the situation beyond control in their own backyards. The Easter attack in Lahore killing 72 and injuring hundreds was recent incident hard to ignore.

Heela took on the ISIS with the same venom, and said –“If this was not enough, the branch of ISIS in Afghanistan has begun taking root and already started committing atrocities.” And asked  “What was the conclusive result of US and its allies, long presence in Afghanistan?”

She only saw blank faces as no one knew the answer.

And continued –“Afghanistan is under the thumb of four brutal forces-The USA and allies; Jihadists; Taliban and now the ISIS. The prime victims are always women.” Castigating foreign funds for inhuman use, she vented –“Islamic fundamentalism comes in many brands and forms and killers are created by misogynists or women-haters, and almost always funded by foreign sponsors to further their interests in other countries.” Afghanistan’s with its $60 billion dollars in foreign aid, is 3rd most corrupt country and has devoured all its Aid and funds.

This was not far from the truth, as a well-documented fact had surfaced that US Pentagon auditors were perplexed over the missing US military equipment worth $420 million in year 2013. The report also stated that between 2006- 2010, equipment valued at nearly $240 million could not be accounted for.

Heela struck the USA’s warped policies, due to which an alarming rise was seen in narcoticproduction in Afghanistan –“Thanks to US invasion; Afghanistan has risen to become a narco-producing state of more than 90% of world’s opium. Women have not escaped the effects of this drug production and about 890,000 out of an unofficial figure of 3.5 million addicts are women including children, in Afghanistan.”

She also criticized the US for falsely and consistently trumpeting gains made by women of Afghanistan buttressing them with instances of presence of females in the Parliament and the relative freedom of women in a few urban cities. “What remains unsaid is that most of these female officials are tied to fundamentalist parties and share their misogynist mindset. These are mere cosmetic changes, only used for propaganda purposes to justify the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan to the people of the world. It is merely to peddle the fact that supposed gains will be lost if foreign troops withdraw,” she boomed.

Her revelation about Afghanistan realpolitik was indeed stark and shocking. In India and many other countries, the US viewpoint was believed, however we were shaken out of our opinions with the facts put across by this young citizen of the beleaguered nation.

And Heela continued –“Despite US and allies presence, which accounts for medical help too, Afghanistan still has the highest maternal mortality rate with one out of nine deaths during childbirth. 57% afghan brides are under 16, about 87% women are illiterate and merely 5%girls attend secondary schools,” she held these counts as offhand and said the ground reality was much worse. ‘Afghanistan is rightfully called the ‘worst place to be a woman’.

Heela concluded with a call for an organized progressive grassroots movement for greater freedom to women in Afghanistan.

She got a resounding applause at the end of it. It was not about delivery of a written piece it was a solidarity gesture with the female sex that few men along with women in Pakistan had also watched and an acknowledgment of Heela’s bravery in exposing the wrongs in her society without fear.

The youngest member of RAWA was not only daring but possessed the wherewithal for survival and anonymity. She couldn’t have stopped many giggly young Pakistani girls from taking her picture during her stage address but with a single stroke she swiped all her pictures from my iPhone with function of ‘airdrop’ leaving me with no pictures of her and smoothly evaded to give me her contact number.

Her act did not fray me; rather it brought a smile and reminded me of a phrase- “Desperate times need desperate means”! And conversely compelled me to salute this heroic young woman of Afghanistan! Just a few days after this address, Heela’s friend request entered my Facebook inbox, naturally picture-less.

The Author can be emailed at rashmitalwarno1@gmail.com

FIRST PUBLISHED IN RISING KASHMIR ON 17TH APRIL 2016