Angelina Jolie shares letter from Afghan girl in first Instagram post
US actress Angelina Jolie, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) special envoy, gives a statement in Goudebo, a camp that welcomes more than 11,000 malian refugees in northern Burkina Faso, on International Refugee Day on June 20, 2021. AFP-Yonhap
Oscar-winning actress and human-rights activist has shared in her first Instagram post a letter from a teenage girl in Afghanistan.
"Right now, the people of Afghanistan are losing their ability to communicate on social media and to express themselves freely. So I've come on Instagram to share their stories and the voices of those across the globe who are fighting for their basic human rights," Jolie wrote alongside an image of the letter and a photo of women wearing burkas.
"I was on the border of Afghanistan two weeks before 9/11, where I met Afghan refugees who had fled the Taliban," added the actress, who is a special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency. "This was twenty years ago. It is sickening to watch Afghans being displaced yet again out of the fear and uncertainty that has gripped their country. To spend so much time and money, to have blood shed and lives lost only to come to this, is a failure almost impossible to understand. Watching for decades how Afghan refugees - some of the most capable people in the world - are treated like a burden is also sickening. Knowing that if they had the tools and respect, how much they would do for themselves. And meeting so many women and girls who not only wanted an education, but fought for it. Like others who are committed, I will not turn away. I will continue to look for ways to help. And I hope you'll join me."
Jolie's post has gotten more than 2 million "likes" since it was posted on Friday.
The letter the actress shared has the name and other identifying markers blacked out in an attempt to protect the author.
In the note, the girl explained how before the Taliban seized control of the country, women and girls had rights and were permitted to go to school and work.
"But when they come, we are all afraid of them, and we think all our dreams are gone," the girl said.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said Saturday that Americans should stay away from the Kabul airport due to "potential security threats outside the gates," showing an increasingly desperate effort to escape the Taliban. (UPI)