'Betrayal and Failure': Angelina Jolie Makes Instagram Debut Decrying Afghanistan Mayhem
05:28 GMT 21.08.2021 (Updated: 05:29 GMT 21.08.2021)
© AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta
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The US has been accused of accelerating the collapse of Afghanistan with a hasty troop withdrawal that resulted in the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government and a swift surge of the Taliban, which has gained control of the country.
Hollywood actress and special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Angelina Jolie has made her Instagram debut, dedicating her first post to a teenage girl from Afghanistan, where the Taliban* movement seized power on 15 August.
"Right now, the people of Afghanistan are losing their ability to communicate on social media and to express themselves freely. So I’ve come on Instagram to share their stories and the voices of those across the globe who are fighting for their basic human rights," she captioned her post.
She posted a photo of a handwritten letter, in which the girl tells how her life has changed over these days and asks for help.
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Jolie called on all those who are not indifferent to provide support and assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
"I was on the border of Afghanistan two weeks before 9/11, where I met Afghan refugees who had fled the Taliban. This was twenty years ago. It is sickening to watch Afghans being displaced yet again out of the fear and uncertainty that has gripped their country," the UNHCR special envoy wrote.
She also appeared to criticise the US government, which has widely been blamed for the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan due to their hasty troop withdrawal after nearly 20 years of war, for a "failure almost impossible to understand".
"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," she concluded.
The 46-year-old actress had registered her account under the nickname @angelinajolie that has already been subscribed to by more than 4 million people.
Aside from raising her voice on social media, Jolie has also penned an op-ed for TIME magazine, in which she suggests that no matter how views may differ on the Afghanistan war, "we probably agree on one thing: it should not have ended this way".
"Giving up the idea of a peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban, 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."
She wrote that she was thinking of all those who have lived in fear for all these years and risked their lives - from Afghan people and refugees to journalists, activists and American troops - and those who are now living in fear about the future.
17 August 2021, 10:31 GMT
"After all the bloodshed and effort and sacrifice and time, America seems to have lacked the will to plan this transition in a managed way. It was never going to be easy or perfect but could have been better, more decent and safer. I, and millions of Americans, gave my faith and trust to successive administrations who told us that we were in Afghanistan to protect our country and support a new democratic Afghan state. I believed that we were doing the right thing, that we stood shoulder to shoulder with Afghans, and that we were fighting in a noble cause. As we fade away from Afghanistan, it is hard to hold on to that trust," she wrote.
"As an American, I am ashamed by the manner of our leaving. It diminishes us. We have lost leverage to influence what now happens in Afghanistan. We lack a strategy to monitor and support women and civil society in Afghanistan, who the Taliban have a history of targeting—banning girls from school, confining women to the home, and inflicting brutal physical punishments, including public lashing, on any woman perceived to have stepped out of line. We face a new refugee crisis, on top of record global displacement, with nearly a quarter of a million Afghans displaced within the country since May— 80% of them women and girls."
"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. 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," she concluded.
Angelina has made many trips to refugee camps in Bangladesh, Turkey, Peru, Malta, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and other countries. In June, she visited refugees from Venezuela, and in April she took part in a meeting of the General Assembly of the world organisation dedicated to peacekeeping operations in the world. Also in June 2018, Angelina, as a UN goodwill ambassador, visited Mosul in Iraq, which was damaged during hostilities amid the fight with Daesh*.
*A terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.
