Questo è quello che succede realmente in Afghanistan

Ecco la drammatica lettera di Andeisha Farid, direttrice del programma AFCECO. Racconta come la scorsa notte, all’una e trenta, degli uomini in divisa armati (30), tra cui degli stranieri che sua madre ha identificato come americani, hanno fatto irruzione a pistole spianate nella casa dei suoi genitori, dove vivono suo padre settantenne, sua madre, sua sorella minore con tre bambini piccoli e suo fratello minore.Hanno devastato la casa portando via ogni cosa,soldi, oggetti di valore e computer, sempre tenendo la sua famiglia sotto la minaccia delle armi.Andandosene hanno portato via il padre e il fratello minore incappucciati. Non hanno idea di dove siano trattenuti, e quando verranno liberati. Andeisha scrive che il loro scopo era evidentemente solo quello di arrecare paura e minacciarli. Suo padre non collabora certo con i talebani, ha rischiato la sua vita per crescere i propri figli nel rispetto dei più elementari diritti
umani, ed è stato interrogato dai talebani quasi fino alla morte solo per aver mandato la figlia a studiare in Pakistan. Andeisha vuole farci sapere che ciò che è avvenuto alla sua famiglia è solo una testimonianza della vita della popolazione afghana, stretta fra il terrore dei talebani e le azioni di un governo – e della forza militare internazionale che lo sostiene – che persegue la “libertà” in modi altrettanto terrificanti. Andeisha sottolinea che lei disprezza i talebani, che li combatte con ogni cellula del suo corpo, con ogni azione della sua vita, e che gli orfanotrofi di AFCECO sono la battaglia che lei ogni giorno combatte contro questi estremisti, e che porterà avanti per tutta la sua esistenza, gioendo per la speranza che legge negli occhi dei suoi bambini. Vuole farci conoscere quanto è successo perché noi possiamo sapere quanto avviene quotidianamente in Afghanistan e che è invisibile agli occhi dei media internazionali.
Possiamo fare qualcosa?

Dear Friends,
This morning I was on my way to the AFCECO offices when I received a phone call from my little sister. These are the details of what she described: Last night at 1 a.m at least 30 armed men in military uniform, including some foreigners that my mother and sister identified as American soldiers broke down the door to my mother and father’s apartment in Kabul city. These were soldiers, the secret service of Karzai’s government with perhaps their American trainers. Just downstairs from the apartment is where the chief of Kabul police lives. Why such a middle of the night, cloak and dagger assault on a little family (my 70 year old father, mother, my little sister, three small children and my younger brother) in a little apartment was necessary given the location and the target, we can only assume had more to do more with creating fear than obtaining some suspect or information which they could have done civilly at any other time of day. These soldiers, with drawn guns and rifles aimed proceeded to ransack the apartment as you see in the movies, pointing guns to my mother and sister not to move on pain of death. They handcuffed a 16 year old nephew of my brother and ordered him into a corner.

There were spoils to be taken, beside laptop computers. They took money from a safe and items of value. Then they put black hoods over my father and brother and ordered my mother and sister not to move from their room for ten minutes after they left. We do not know where they took my father and brother, why, or for how long. All that remains is shock, an empty, destroyed apartment, and questions. This may be how a SWAT team approaches the task of saving hostages, but to investigate an old man living in a small apartment with women and children?

I tell you if I ever knew that my father had been involved with the Taliban in any way I would have cut him from my life long ago, but my father was once likewise terrorized by the Taliban, interrogated almost to death simply for having sent his girls to school in Pakistan. It is my father who taught me the principles of equality and democracy. He
raised all of his children including my little brother in such a manner at the greatest risk to his own life. Today my mother is in shock. We are all in shock. How to perform my duties, how do I concentrate on the needs of the children in the orphanages?

This incident tears at my heart for many reasons in addition to my fear for the life of my father and brother. The victimization of my people continues in this manner all over Afghanistan. Oftentimes people are simply killed. I cringe because the manner in which the government and its allies conduct security, provide freedom, is the manner in which many people in my country feel trapped between two fires: on one side the Taliban and their brand of terror, and on the other side a government almost equally horrifying. I despise the Taliban.

Every cell in my body, every action of my life exists to fight against such extremists. AFCECO is my war against the Taliban, and it will continue to be my battle plan for the rest of my life. Every day when I come to the orphanage and see the happy faces of the children who were victims of the Taliban, I have hope. But not everyone is so fortunate as I am to be so clear about what is best for their country, and incidents like what happened to my family only worsen their clarity.

I was going to write a different letter today. I was going to tell you the wonderful news about having been awarded a grant that will allow me to provide leadership training for our oldest girls, and to send them to America where they will receive mentorship from women who are leaders and business owners. Instead this is the letter I write. I write this
letter not only for myself, but for you my friends, so you can have your eyes opened to another reality here in my country, a reality seldom reported in any news.

Best regards,

Andeisha Farid
Founder
& Executive Director
AFCECO
www.afceco.org
andeisha@afceco.org