Love to the Women and Girls in Afghanistan

How can I find the words to send you this message, knowing what is being done to you - that suddenly you are not allowed to leave your home, must not be seen on your own as a woman independent at any time, or you will be punished. That you will be/have been captured away, so that all who love you can’t find you. We have heard that many of you are hiding your degrees, your computers, your writings. Leaving the classrooms you were teaching in. All women being kept indoors, and no money for those burkas that suddenly are compulsory and with impossibly raised prices. So many of you facing men who welcome these old patriarchal laws that we have been working to eradicate, that every woman must obey every man or risk being destroyed at gunpoint or imprisoned in your own home. 

Dear sisters of Afghanistan, there is recent news of women rising everywhere, women of the world furious at what is being done to you right now and wanting you to know that we will never stop until you are free and respected in every way. That we will call out loudly in a sonic wave of resistance if political leaders try to bend their words as they keep their money business flowing, making deals with each other. Money that women have little to no access to. We will continue to call out the patriarchal leadership of this world. What unacceptable and disgusting behaviour among the patriarchal leaders determined to hold back societal change to women being free and respected. Centuries of false promises.

Dear sisters of Afghanistan, we are repeating the stories of this violent forced labour of women written into yet another law being celebrated at this time right in front of us. 

Meanwhile the patriarchal leaders negotiate how much money will be made available, the US having frozen a lot of your country’s assets. We watch all this negotiating over money, as you, our sisters have been locked inside. We will not be silent. We will not accept this. We will charge our own governments for their complicity. We continue to challenge the UN. We are sick and tired of our words being smothered, and know that it is time for us as women and all gentle people to end all this war and ruination. 

My sisters in Afghanistan, the sisters of the world cannot bear in our hearts and are mourning this treatment that is being done to you, that has been forced on you, living constantly under threat. We cannot bear that governments of the world carry on as if nothing has happened. That you would be forced into fearing constantly for your lives, and so many who have had to flee for their lives.

My sisters in Afghanistan your sisters are surrounding you, holding an invisible cord of trust built on love, that our hearts are together, knowing that love and caring, freedom and respect need to be in place, the foundation for every woman to stand on. Know that we are aware every waking moment of what is being done to you. That we are searching for ways to let you know. We want you to know even if this message never reaches you directly, that your sisters  live and breath for you to be free. Know that here are many of us whose entire reason for living is to bring respect and freedom from violence to women and girls everywhere, and to end all of the violence being done to everyone, everywhere. That we live our lives to end this vicious control. That we will never stop working for this freedom. That we live to see you free.

We speak out for the freedom for women to walk anywhere we want to go, dress as we want, choose freely who we want and do not want to be in our lives, be respected for our opinions, be able to survive. Now suddenly sisters in Afghanistan have no rights, while globally women are being threatened or punished if we even speak about it. New laws dictate that the controlling of women across this planet will continue and increase. We can only hope you know that your sisters around the world are not accepting this. 

Dear sisters in Afghanistan, know that even if there is no way to get these words directly to you, our messages will travel through these cords that we have woven together heart to heart these words we call out, refusing to be silent, these songs that we sing to you, so that you know your sisters globally are sending you love, continuing to work for your freedom, to honour you in every way women should be. 

Our love is being sent from everywhere in the world, and we are determined to change the direction we have been forced into for far too long.

Dear sisters, how I wish we could be meeting together, but want you to know that so many are gathering and finding ways to stay in touch, and continue to send our love. We send our love on gentle winds, our calls an ancient song, we reach out to keep strong our interwoven roots beneath the earth, our arms hold the chord, we make solid our connections every way we can. We live for you to be free.

Wherever we are, we cherish that we have learned to be in touch like this, are able to be in touch like this, whether on paper to through computers, or the chance to meet, or through our thoughts through the air, we are with each other, these times when women gather, connected no matter the distance and barriers, connected by the beat of our hearts, by the sound of our drums, by continuing to make known every story, we continue until you are all free. We continue until we are all free.

News from Women’s Shelters in Afghanistan

https://www.pri.org/stories/2021-08-30/women-s-shelters-afghanistan-face...

US Women speak out together Aug 29/21

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/activists-to-march-to-white-house-i...

One Billion Rising 1Sept and 12/2021

https://www.facebook.com/groups/obr.organizers/permalink/3895194853914296/

#RiseForWomenofAfghanistan #NoToTaliban #StandWithWomenOfAfghanistan #RiseResistUnite #RiseInSolidarity #UntilTheViolenceStops