No conflict or crisis can be deconstructed quickly and easily.
And Afghanistan is no exception.
Yet in its case, we do know what could immediately alleviate the suffering its currently under – and prevent this humanitarian crisis from deepening.
This is what this article is about.
I have previously written about the nightmarish predictions that international bodies and various aid agencies had for Afghanistan. Tragically, the situation now is as dire as predicted.
A new UN report released in March 2022 states that a number as high as 95 per cent of Afghan households don’t have enough to eat. Malnutrion and food insecurity are rampant. Accute hunger rose from 14 million people in July 2021 to 23 million in March 2022. Here let’s not forget the population of Afghanistan is just over 40 million.
We know that political turmoil – on top of devastation of a 20-year war – after the Taliban took power in August 2021 is a big factor in this crisis.
But we also know what one other factor that could immediately alleviate this suffering of the Afghan people is: these are the frozen funds that belong to the people of Afghanistan, and that are kept in mostly U.S. accounts.
(Please read and hear more about it here)
More and more organizations are calling for the U.S. to return these funds back to the country that is in a desperate need to pay its employers, to resume paying its pensions, and to finally start healing.
What could be done with these funds once they’re unfrozen? What are civil societies in Afghanistan saying about it? What about the representatives of the Afghan Central Bank?
To hear about all this and more, please watch this webinar which is my video recommendation for today.
In it, amazing ladies who made up the first civil society women’s delegation to Afghanistan since the takeover of the Taliban in April 2021 share what they have learned on on their trip.
They represent different organizations that all demand the same thing – for the U.S. government to release the money to the Afghan government. It belongs to Afghanistan, and this is what the country desperately needs.
They also talk about an alternative to sanctions and other types of punishment that Afghanistan has been under; how we can push and influece a regime as closed as the Taliban’s, no matter how unsual it might sound.
Please watch it and share it widely.
If you’d like to learn more about this campaign to release the funds to Afghanistan, please see what Unfreeze Afghanistan – a coalition created for specifically this – has been doing.
Latest from the Blog
On Iran, (Ir)rationality, and Those Who Didn’t See Any Destabilisation of The Region in Israel’s Genocide
Remember when Iran used to be called an irrational, unpredictable actor? Well, I invite you to notice any changes when it comes to irrationality, constructed narratives, and how war propaganda looks these days.
On One of The Gravest Crimes against Humanity That Not Every Country Chose to Condemn at The UN
The UN just voted to describe the transatlantic slave trade as ‘the gravest crime against humanity’. Yet not every country, according to its vote, agrees. My commentary is on what the abstentions show.
Your Antiwar Voice Is Needed More Than You Might Think
The war machine won’t stop until it’s stopped, just as its propaganda won’t just disappear on its own. It was to be actively pointed to, deconstructed, and rejected as loudly as possible. And this is where everyone’s voice matters.
Good News: We Are on a Boat Ride Together; Bad News: It’s Being Steered by Psychopaths
We’re on a boat steered by psychopaths — and they’re not taking us anywhere nice. As the U.S. and Israel are destroying Lebanon and Iran, one thing can’t be clearer: it is the whole world that has to make them stop.
There Are Those Who Celebrate Women’s Day and Cheer for the Bombing of Schools
Using the “liberation of women” is not new when it comes to justifying the unjustifiable. Notice how it is used again in Iran, including by those who are known to intentionally harm women and children.
MY Country Stands with Fascist Regimes. What about Yours?
Let’s normalise talking about the secondary rage and grief you might be feeling seeing your government appease, bow down to, and support fascist regimes
From Iran to Palestine: Beware Those Who Say They Liberate Children by Bombing Schools
Israel has been murdering children in Palestine and Lebanon for decades. Now, it has chosen to murder children – under the guise of regime change – in Iran.
From Cuba to Palestine: Beware Those Who Seek to See Hospitals Run Out of Fuel
What we’re seeing in Cuba is an intensification of imperial violence by those who have been unleashing it on Palestine, too. The parallels here are many, including how the mentality of a coloniser cannot be more on display here.
Have You Witnessed Democratic Mechanisms Being Eroded on Live TV? Here’s An Example
If you couldn’t believe what you were seeing during Pam Bondi’s, the U.S. Attorney General’s testimony in a House Judicial Committee hearing on the Epstein files, here’s how to make sense of it. It’s also why it is terrifying.
From Palestine to The Epstein Files: Will You Demand Justice or Embrace Collective Amnesia?
It is not only the violence by the ones in power that the Epstein files resemble Israel’s destruction of Gaza – it’s about the (potential) collective amnesia, too.
Don’t miss an update! Follow The Exploding Head
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
The Exploding Head Media 