Please sign if you can. The quote below is much more eloquent than anything I could write so please read and sign if you can.
www.change.org/p/save-british-council-educators-from-the-taliban?recruiter=165851059&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=eebfd2a0-53cc-11e4-88b0-2febaaa99e54&utm_content=fht-30293198-en-us%3A2
From the petition
“The British Council is the UK government’s cultural outreach organisation and was first established in Kabul in 1964. Since 2002, the British Council has employed dozens of Afghans, including educators, who have promoted British values such as democracy, justice, and education for all children, including girls. The British Council is viewed as part of the British government and is headquartered with the British Embassy in Kabul. To the Taliban, they are one and the same as the British Embassy or armed service personnel.
British Council educators have often worked in hard-to-reach, remote areas at great personal risk. They have been at the forefront of efforts to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan. As such, they are known to the Taliban and their allies as spies and collaborators with Western “infidels”. Despite this, they have worked fearlessly for a peaceful and better future.
The US, UK and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan has left them and their families in great peril.
One of the educators, Abdul Ghulam, who is currently in hiding in a regional capital city under near-constant Taliban attack, wrote this:
“Because I work for the British Council I am perceived as promoting Christianity in schools. Many people also see me as a British spy. The mullah in our local mosque preaches that anyone supporting the British Council and teaching its language is an infidel, and he refers to me personally as evidence. I humbly urge the British government to grant me and my family asylum to relocate to the United Kingdom and live peacefully.””