August 17th, 2021
Staff Report
LAHORE
Women’s rights advocacy group Women Action Forum (WAF) has condemned the “illegal and anti-democratic occupation of Afghanistan by Taliban. The group has also criticized Pakistan for being involved in proxy war in Afghanistan for decades.
The group in a statement called upon Pakistan to absolve its past by lending support and aid to the Afghan people.
“We urge Pakistan to open its borders to civilian Afghan refugees and help our neighboring country in their time of crisis. Pakistan cannot act as a safe haven for Taliban forces once again, as it has in the past”, the statement read.
The statement said that according to a joint report published by UNOHCHR and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 2021has seen more women and children killed in Afghanistan in the first half of the year since 2009.
UN Refugee Agency has reported that 80% of 250,000 citizens displaced from their homes are women and children.
WAF also urged the international community to provide aid to Afghan people. “We demand the international community recognise this period as a crisis for Afghanistan, and lend humanitarian aid by whatever means necessary to its people.”
The rights group also criticised the US for its hasty and disorderly pull out from war-torn Afghanistan. “We condemn the international community, in particular, the US and its allies for playing war games in Afghanistan and beating an ill-planned, hasty retreat leaving Afghanistan at the brink of a possible civil war”, the statement said.
“We are furthermore ashamed by Pakistan’s eagerness to celebrate the fall of the regime in Afghanistan, and assign blame on others, without taking any responsibility for its own complicity”, it added.
The statement said that the news reports of the removal of women’s images from billboards and advertisements and of women being sent back from their workplaces and universities have provided enough evidence the removal of women’s images from billboards and advertisements; fear of violence and death for the Hazara community; reports of people fleeing their homes and of women being sent back from their workplaces and universities.
“We stand by the Afghan people living under the Taliban’s shadow once more, and extend our full support and solidarity in their time of need”, WAF said.
