AFGHANISTAN: An Afghan Woman’s Plea to the Taliban

Kamila Geethi escaped Kabul after the Taliban seized the capital in August. In this urgent letter to the Taliban, she pleads for the new leaders of her country to care for her homeland.

Doesn’t your chest feel heavy with the guilt of thousands of innocent lives massacred? Don't You fear the screams of these children in your sleep?

Editor's Note: This story is part three in a series. Read part one and part two.

To the Taliban,

As I write this appeal to you, I am filled with the pain and sorrows of Afghanistan. In the last few decades, this land has only witnessed killings, genocide, bombings, mothers’ tears, young girls’ screams, and terror attacks on children and the innocent.

I am writing to you to implore you for peace and for humanity.

I am a 25-year-old Afghan woman, and I have spent half my life as a refugee. I am your daughter, your sister, your niece. Maybe one day I will be a mother, the heavens placed under my feet as it is for all mothers.

I am an educated woman. I can read and write and debate and look into your eyes. I can also read and understand the Holy Quran; I am a Muslim woman who knows and understands Sharia Law, who follows it daily.

I ask you: Was Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) living a life that did not comply with Sharia when he worked for a businesswoman, his wife Bibi Khadija? Was He not compliant when he sought her help in every aspect of his life?

Let the Afghan women and girls learn, work, and help you as the wife of the Prophet did for him. I plead, do not hide these brave women behind burqas and imprison them in their homes. Let Afghanistan breathe in peace. Without terror and with love, create a new identity for yourself in the eyes of Afghans, and we will forgive you!

Foreign troops have left Afghanistan, and now it is a new chapter in the history of Afghanistan; it can be a new chapter for the Taliban, too. Two decades of war, insecurity, and conflict have killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans.

When you last ruled, Afghanistan plunged into darkness and ignorance. We lost our best writers, poets, scholars, engineers, and many more. Shouldn’t this be enough? Doesn’t Your chest feel heavy with the guilt of thousands of innocent lives massacred? Don't You fear the screams of these children in your sleep?

I wonder if you are as tired as we are; your shoulders must be worn down with the weight of your weapons, your hearts must be wary of the things you have witnessed, the things you see every day. You must long to be in the arms of your families, to be with your loved ones. I imagine your children are desperately waiting for you to arrive back home; I imagine you want to be with them.

Stop this terror, this cruelty, and end this chapter. Care, love, and humanity is more powerful than any weapon. Open your arms and help us build a prosperous Afghanistan, welcome in a new era that celebrates all her people. Then, perhaps we would welcome you.

I am Khadija.

I am Fatima. I am Mulki Jan, Shakiba Bibi, Sakina; I am a daughter of Afghanistan, I am your daughter…

Taliban, Afghanistan is now in your hands; please take care of my people.

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