Feeling devastated after seeing this news about Afghanistan

[LovingLilacDuck]

I stumbled across this on BBC — https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q25dwj807o

I can’t stop crying. I feel so incredibly devastated that we live in such an unequal world. I cannot believe in 2026 people have to starve and children die — and girls be sold??? because of hunger. Goodness sake. That’s not right, it’s so inhumane. Seeing the tears on those tiny girls’ eyes and how fearful they are just breaks my heart so much, oh Gosh.

I just really feel sorry for these people who have to live under Taliban and suffer immensely. It’s so heartbreaking. And I know these people are not the only ones unfortunately…I just feel like we all have so much, more than we all need to and I wish we could just help the poor more as a whole world. But that doesn’t bring any profits does it???!

I wish I could do something to help, whatever that may be. Does anyone have a clue about what to do? I’d appreciate any insight. Thank you.

I think we know why.

And people work to get there whilst benefiting from western freedoms.

Actually, you're the oblivious one with no knowledge of what actually living in that situation is like, pronouncing on high from afar. I think you've no idea who the monster is and what you'd do because you've not been in that situation of watching child after child die of hunger. If you're so quick to condemn all mothers and all fathers, why aren't you doing something about it? A good start would be getting out and about in the world and seeing just how some people have to live.

But people still March for Palestine. If they’re willing to run the risk of arrest for Palestine, why not Afghanistan? And marching for Afghanistan would run no risk of being deemed “antisemitism” would it? Unless people were marching claiming Israel or Jews were also responsible for Afghanistan

What can they do? The Taliban are heavily armed with the millions of dollars worth of weaponry the US left behind. And these types of countries are usually comprised of fragmented tribal groups making it difficult to coordinate resistance.

To stand a sliver of a chance both sexes would probs need to fight.

The USA tried to help but at the end of the day, Afghans are Afghans no matter who is supposedly in charge. Some of those Afghans brought in by the US military have already raped American women, killed US national guardsmen.

GWB was an absolute fool and thought he could just … remake these countries and turn them into peaceful, egalitarian democracies. He had no theory of mind for these people, didn’t understand that if you got rid of the demons at the top, you still have the demons within the hearts and minds of the people. And you’ll not get rid of that so easily.

But marching for Afghanistan would and could achieve nothing - unless you think the marchers should be calling for us to send our troops back to "liberate" the country. Marching for Palestine however could influence our diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.

I know you're just chucking in some whataboutary to derail but equating the two is stupid.

Ah the white supremacists have arrived.

Not meaning to digress on the actual topic being discussed, I wanted to point out something that is commonly mentioned:

The age of Aisha (and other women in that time) was calculated in years post puberty.

Therefore if she attained puberty at age 9, and her age of marriage was between “6 and 9” she would have been between 15-18 years old when she was married.

Have you lived in that situation either? No? In these situations, some people will prefer for them all to die together - they may even murder-suicide. In some countries, people just don't sell their children when they're starving, and some will die and others will live. Even just from person to person, let alone country to country, how people will react will be different.

But I do not agree that selling your daughter into sexual slavery at the age of 10 will ever be acceptable. And any man who has impregnated a woman after the point that the Taliban took over, is worthy of contempt.

I think people marching want to influence British government policy, as they are supporting Israel. Yes, marching would definitely raise awareness, but maybe be less effective. Just because there are no marches doesn't mean people condone what is happening. There are lots of charities (British ones) that directly support Afghan people. Arguably supporting those charities are a better way to support Afghan people, when marching is unlikely to affect government policy (as Britain is not engaged in the country).

but maybe matching for Afghanistan could influence diplomatic efforts as well? I mean, it’s worth a shot isn’t it? Maybe knowing people outside Afghanistan support them might give the Afghanistani people hope and maybe put pressure on the Taliban? I mean, what have all the marches for Palestine achieved?

Fuck all because they’re marching on the premise we’re involved when we’re not

Can you say what about that post is ‘white supremacist’?

The USA directly funded the rise of the Taliban in the late 1970s.

White supremacy is thinking your way of life will obviously be accepted by everyone around the globe because it’s far superior to their way of life. And when they come to your country, they will realize how superior your Western culture is, and immediately adopt it.

No, I am realist. I don’t expect everyone to adopt Western culture, because very obviously they don’t and won’t. They like trading their daughters for gain. They see nothing wrong with it.

Why can't the women rise up and fight too?

The Afghan military is an absolute joke compared to the Taliban. All the equipment fell into disrepair as soon as the US left as much of the maintenance was undertaken by foreign contractors. They won't even be able to procure basic suppies like bullets or lubricants to keep the guns operational.

And it's funny how for all the tough talk about not needing men it's always the same. When the shit hits the fan the women are suddenly helpless and 'only the men can fix this' - i.e. function as cannon fodder. They won't be much use to their families once dead and I guarantee that in a similar situation most of you wouldn't want your sons and husbands rushing to their near certain death.

‘Only men can fix this’ only men CAUSED it so don’t you dare!

The USA funded the IRA, the Irish have developed and moved on from this ‘style’ of politics. Because they’re civilised people.

You think they wouldn’t still be living the way they do without the Taliban in charge? Really?

Taliban is only a symptom of a larger problem. A lot of the same sort of evils happens across the border in Pakistan. Tribal societies, basically. A place where you can kill your daughter if she objects to marriage or you can be revenge raped because your male relative did something bad.

Sure, but it’s America’s fault

I agree. This isn’t just consequential politics, they clearly have very deep seated ‘issues’ shall we say.

Over 50 years ago they supported an Afghan resistance to Russian invasion. The French resistance were supported by their allies. The Ukraine resistance is supported by European countries.

What happens when the resistance win is up to the resistance.

I was going to say something like this. I’m really glad the OP put this thread up, hardly anyone seems to talk about Afghanistan.

I remember when the US was withdrawing from Afghanistan and a load of the people in the cities said that they were about to be ruled by a load of illiterate bumpkins. The men don’t learn to read so are threatened by any girls and women who can. The men at the top of the Taliban can read but it isn’t in their interest to educate the population below them.

This ^^ And don’t forget what the boys are being subjected to either. Absolutely horrendous.

Yeah, all those poor, helpless men only selling their daughters as they have done for hundreds of years because the evil west makes them. They never sell their sons. Or get up and work. It's all our fault, and never theirs as the new faux-left orientalism tells us. I'm just wondering exactly when people are expected to take responsibility for themselves.