Angelina Jolie joins Instagram to raise awareness about plight of Afghan women, girls under Taliban rule
Jolie, who is a Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said she signed up for the platform to “share [the] stories and the voices of those across the globe who are fighting for their basic human rights.”
Actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie signed up to Instagram last week, using her first post to blast President Joe Biden on his handling of Afghanistan, posting a letter from a young Afghan girl.
Jolie, who is a Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said she signed up for the platform to “share [the] stories and the voices of those across the globe who are fighting for their basic human rights.”
She also shared that she had been in Afghanistan just weeks before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and met with refugees fleeing the Taliban.
Jolie went on to express her disappointment and grief at how the Biden administration has handled the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying:
It is sickening to watch Afghans being displaced yet again out of the fear and uncertainty that has gripped their country.
To spend so much time and money, to have blood shed and lives lost only to come to this, is a failure almost impossible to understand.
Watching for decades how Afghan refugees – some of the most capable people in the world – are treated like a burden is also sickening. Knowing that if they had the tools and respect, how much they would do for themselves. And meeting so many women and girls who not only wanted an education, but fought for it.
Like others who are committed, I will not turn away. I will continue to look for ways to help. And I hope you’ll join me.
Jolie’s post included a letter from a young Afghan teenager who said that the Taliban had taken control of her region, saying that Afghan women think “all our dreams are gone.”
The letter concluded by saying, “We have no rights, the life of all of us is dark, we all lost our freedom, and we are imprisoned again.”
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Jolie wrote a column for Time last Friday, where she argued, “Whatever your views on the war in Afghanistan, we probably agree on one thing: it should not have ended this way.”
She went on to say that “appearing to cut and run, and abandoning our allies and supporters in the most chaotic way imaginable, after so many years of effort and sacrifice, is a betrayal and a failure impossible to fully understand.”
The actress went on to say that as an American she is “ashamed by the manner of our leaving” and contended that it has left the U.S. diminished in the world’s eyes.
“Our allies are rightly upset, blaming the U.S. for a precipitate, unilateral withdrawal that missed the opportunity for any coordinated plan to preserve some of the gains made in the country,” she said, concluding, “We have to acknowledge and address these realities, if we are to have any hope of learning from this dark moment. Evacuating some vulnerable people and accepting some more Afghan refugees for resettlement—as important as both steps are—isn’t going to solve the problem. It is only the beginning of what we need to do if all the years of effort and sacrifice in Afghanistan aren’t going to be wasted.”
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