As Taliban forces rapidly assume control over large portions of Afghanistan, a heartbreaking video showing an Afghan girl crying over the sad state of affairs in her country has gone viral on social media
“We don’t count because we were born in Afghanistan,” the unnamed girl says through tears in the video first shared by Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad.
“I cannot help crying. I have to wipe my tears to be able to film this video,” she goes on to say.
“No one cares about us,” she adds. “We’ll die slowly in history.”
As of Monday afternoon, the video, which has evoked sympathy from many, has been viewed nearly 2 million times on Twitter. “We don’t count because we’re from Afghanistan. We’ll die slowly in history” Tears of a hopeless Afghan girl whose… https://t.co/FpsACc7XpK
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@Masih Alinejad 🏳️)
Alinejad, a frequent critic of the global oppression of women, wrote in the tweet’s caption: “My heart breaks for women of Afghanistan. The world has failed them. History will write this.”
The Taliban’s stunning takeover of the Middle Eastern nation has left many fearing what life will be like under the terrorist militant organization’s rule. Afghanis have demonstrated their desperation in recent days by jumping on air-bound U.S. planes only to fall hundreds of feet to their death.
Yet while life will assuredly be more difficult for many members of society, women are in line to lose many of the rights they have historically enjoyed. It is well-documented that under the Taliban’s previous rule in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, women were subject to particularly harsh treatment.
The U.S. Department of State reported in 2001 that “the Taliban regime cruelly reduced women and girls to poverty, worsened their health, and deprived them of their right to an education, and many times the right to practice their religion.”
The regime also “perpetrated egregious acts of violence against women, including rape, abduction, and forced marriage,” the State Department report continued. “Some families resorted to sending their daughters to Pakistan or Iran to protect them.”
Tens of thousands of women reportedly had “no source of income” and “many were reduced to selling all of their possessions and begging in the streets, or worse, to feed their families.”
“The Taliban’s return is catastrophic for women,” The Atlantic reported on Monday, noting that women who have fought hard for their freedom “stand to lose everything.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has already said he is “deeply disturbed by early indications that the Taliban are imposing severe restrictions on human rights in the areas under their control, particularly targeting women and journalists.”
“It is particularly horrifying and heartbreaking to see reports of the hard-won rights of Afghan girls and women being ripped away from them,” he noted.
