Angelina Jolie has joined Instagram, and while most celebrities do so to sell products or post selfies taken in picturesque locations, the Oscar winner is using her new platform to speak for the voiceless in Afghanistan.
“I’ve come on Instagram to share their stories,” the actress and United Nations Humanitarian Special Envoy for Refugees said.
Jolie posted a letter from a young girl living in the country, now overrun by the Taliban amid the ongoing U.S. pull-out. “We all had rights, we [were] able to defend our rights freely, but when they came, we are all afraid of them, and we think all our dreams are gone,” the hand-written note from an Afghani girl declares.
While the Biden Administration is communicating with the Taliban and the group is taking a moderate tone on social media, the girl is skeptical of their behavior. “Some people say the Taliban’s changed, but I do not think so because they have a very bad past,” she writes in the letter Jolie posted.
“We all had rights, we [were] able to defend our rights freely, but when they came, we are all afraid of them, and we think all our dreams are gone,” she continued.
For her part, Jolie added, “I was on the border of Afghanistan two weeks before 9/11, where I met Afghan refugees who had fled the Taliban. This was twenty years ago.”
She continued, “It is sickening to watch Afghans being displaced yet again…” adding, “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.”
Jolie concluded, “I will not turn away. I will continue to look for ways to help. And I hope you’ll join me.”
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