Nothing like the Pakistani gov expelling Afghan refugees en masse back to a despotic country in the wake of a devastating earthquake and on the eve of an upcoming winter. All because of attacks on Pakistan from groups linked to said despotic regime that had been at the very least tacitly supported by the Pakistani gov.
Oh.. and a potential update to this (which has been coming as there are tensions between Iran and Afghanistan):
If you're wondering how to help Afghans, and discouraged by the fact that it'd be near impossible to convince these countries otherwise, International Rescue Foundation is probably the most practical source.
Otherwise, if you're American and in a blue/swing district, pressure your rep to push for the Afghan Adjustment Act and similar measures to help refugees get here and be supported. And even if you're in an area where appeals will fall on deaf ears due to racism/nativism/Islamophobia, there are refugee orgs nearby you can get involved with.
If you're not American, there are probably equivalent things that could be done.
I'm gonna try to compile a list of resources for the genocides and humanitarian crisis going on so people will at least have a place to start so they can stay informed
Each place will have a link and then just click on the link to go to the resources. If yall have any you wanna recommend say it under the post of that place
Pls reblog the original posts so more people can see what’s been added
Yumna Al-Arashi, Axis of Evil (Yemen, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq), 2020
in Leica Fotografie International (LFI) magazine:
"This photograph was made for my first European solo show in Berlin, in the gallery Anahita Contemporary. It's a self-portrait alongside Anahita Sadighi, Moshtari Hilal and Susu AbdulMajid. We are respectively from Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite our different roots I noticed that we all share a similar background, having grown up in Western nations that often vilify the places our families are from.
I also noticed the strong profiles of each of our faces. So I decided to create this portrait with the title Axis of Evil – a play on the term so frequently used to describe our home countries when we were growing up. It also embraces the beauty of our distinctive noses, which are often treated as ugly, something to be changed. I wanted to embrace these qualities of ours in this image, creating something powerful, defiant."
Hey it occurred to me that some of you here possibly do not follow me on Twitter and thus do not yet know about
http://aseelapp.com
So OK in 2021 the US abruptly withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban promptly seized the capital of Kabul. The US responded by freezing the assets of the national bank at which point the Afghan economy collapsed. There are no jobs to be had, people can't afford to buy food or heat their homes, over 10,000 children under 5 years old have died from starvation and malnutrition this year. Things are incredibly bad.
Foreign aid orgs withdrew when the US government did out of fear they couldn't keep their foreign national staff safe from the Taliban. The UN has classified what is happening in Afghanistan as the largest humanitarian disaster in the world right now.
Enter Nasrat Khalid and Aseel. Aseel is an Afghan company run by Afghan people who live in places from DC to Egypt to remote provinces in Afghanistan. When they provide food, it is food purchased in Afghanistan that people will want to eat, not what westerners think people should have. When Aseel provides clothing, it is Afghan clothing purchased from Afghan shops made by Afghan tailors, not worn out castoffs from westerners. Beneficiaries are not required to do any work for Aseel and are helped regardless of religion or ethnicity. Aseel also provides Afghan artisans access to international customers, helping them not need to become beneficiaries in the first place.
So you can help a couple ways - you can buy an emergency package/donate to a campaign, or you can literally go shopping for any number of beautiful things. It will take about a month for things to get to you from Afghanistan but it's absolutely worth it.
as a lot of attention and media coverage is focusing on the critical situation in palestine atm, i wanna make this post to bring some awareness to the devastating earthquakes that have hit western afghanistan (herat) recently. this past weekend (october 7, 2023) over 2000 ppl died due to the 6.3-magnitude and another earthquake with the same magnitude hit the area again today (october 11, 2023).
the ppl are in dire need of financial aid since a lot of those had been cut in recent years due to the taliban taking over again. the wfp regional director for asia and the pacific said this drastic drop in funding (wfp had 80% less money for afghanistan than last year!!!) is going to lead to a famine and the situation is looking hopeless; especially children and women are suffering these consequences.
here are some organizations that are working on the ground rn and are reliable! please share and consider donating, even if it's just the money u would've spent on takeout or an iced coffee today.
islamic relief and doctors without borders are 2 very well established nonprofits that always help out financially and medically in emergency situations in developing countries
visions for children - german nonprofit founded by two afghan sisters which sets up educational programs and emergency funds!
asiyah international - another german nonprofit that's running national and international aid projects!
srowzar children - australian nonprofit that's on the ground in afghanistan and always posting updates on how ur donations are making a difference!