Taliban misogyny driving female volunteer numbers says NGO

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“Our women volunteer membership is rising steadily in the past 11 months, but we now have a surge we can barely handle,” explains a young woman operating three women’s shelters in Afghanistan.

Grace is a Syrian Canadian who has been in Kandahar province since 2021 when she was promoted from her role in Syria’s Id Lib province running women’s shelters there for The RINJ Foundation.

 

by Melissa Hemingway

Afghanistan is where women cry that certain way you know is apocalyptic.

Grace is very cryptic and open with her reports and hence this interview was cleared for security reasons by her supervisor, Dr. Nassima al Amouri who requested only that last name and any identification be removed. –Melissa

“For too long Afghan family health has not been cared for,” noted Geraldine Frisque, spokesperson for The RINJ Foundation who said for security reasons she would not discuss political and safety issues in Afghanistan while new operations were underway.  What those operations are, FPMag was not told.

“So that’s Grace’s  job, updating women’s health care and our old shelters after their being abandoned thus far in the pandemic and the Taliban misogyny.

“Grace has built new hope in her small but growing communities. In her new role Grace is dealing with a broad mix of women’s and children’s safety and health issues and getting better at doing that every day,” added Ms. Frisque.

https://media.fpmag.net/december-2022/University-Professor-says-these-diplomas-are-worthless-if-my-sister-and-mother-cannot-go-to-school.mp4?_=1

Viral Video: Extremely upset Kabul university professor holds up his diplomas in front of television cameras. “From today I don’t need these diplomas anymore because this country is no place for an education. If my sister & my mother can’t study, then I do not accept this education.”

“The Taliban Psychopaths have banned education for females in Afghanistan.”

“We have been extremely busy fighting ISIS over their sex-slave operations that has them taking minor teenage females to sell and us and our security contractor recovering the girls and killing their captors,” explained Grace as our interview continued. We had met near the Afghanistan/Iran border while she was attending to some other activities.

American SNAFU. Afghanistan raping horror begins

“It’s complicated because in many cases the parents have actually sold the girl to ISIS in order to buy food for the other kids. We need to get more food to give away. I need tons of rice. We then in those cases do not return the kids to their parents unless they are wealthy and can pay our costs which then means they did not sell the kids. Those are many in numbers but a small percentage of the total.”

“The children we take in are sent to one of three large women’s shelters and the teens usually become volunteers helping out with the other women’s needs, especially those with infants.

“ISIS-K keeps telling us that the Taliban is encroaching on their business when we put a beef on their people.

“But I can say for sure that the recent bans on women joining NGOs and the ban against women’s education has driven up our membership. We have women who know every creep we need to speak with and where they live. One girl told us her sister had been stolen right out of her bed and she knew where they were holding the girl. Thanks to her our security contractor raided the dump and recovered seven kids. OK, I agree on that one, these were Taliban. And teh ISIS-K is right—the Taliban child sex traders are morons. They are all dead at that place, I should add.

RINJ NGO woman fighting Taliban and ISIS in Afghanistan

Afghanistan Woman NGO organizer “Grace” as she is seen by her co-workers. Photo courtesy Dr. Nassima al Amouri of the RINJ Foundation. Original art by Rosa Yamamoto

“So now you know why the Taliban banned women from joining NGOs. Sorry, but it is kill or be killed. We cannot let them near our shelters.”

“We do not accept male volunteers at all—any who try are Taliban spies—but we are having trouble clearing the women volunteers because our security team is overwhelmed with work. We need money. We need more propane, blankets and more food. We are smuggling a lot of stuff from Iran and Pakistan where we have a strong organization and many good volunteers.

“Here the younger volunteers are limited in their abilities like reading and writing deficits.

“So, addressing that, we now have two teachers whom we moved from Syria and we are running our own damn school. For me that is ironic because back in Canada I hated school over a decade ago. Now I am running a school,” she added, speaking very quickly in French.

Read also: Women resistance in Afghanistan going well. Women Judges must be protected, evacuated, say underground fighters

 

“Get me some gaddam’d money, Melissa. I want to get five hundred shelters going across the country. That will really effup the Taliban”

(As usual, Grace overwhelmed me. We thank the security team that made our meeting possible. –Melissa)

“When women just cry, is it the sign of their humanity or is it for a lost humanity?”
Cropped from a Restored Rogier van der Weyden work. Courtesy the exhibition.
This is a crop from “Rogier van der Weyden” exhibition, which revolves around the completion of the restoration of the El EscorialCalvary, a project carried out in collaboration with Patrimonio Nacional and with the support of Fundación Iberdrola. The exhibition provides a unique and unlikely to be repeated opportunity to view the restored work alongside the PradoDescent from the Cross, the Miraflores Triptych, now in Berlin, and the Antwerp Altarpiece of the Seven Sacraments..
Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine