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About 100 activists and supporters gathered on Parliament Hill on Sunday afternoon to denounce the Taliban’s oppression of Afghan ladies and encourage worldwide recognition of what’s going down within the Central Asian nation as gender apartheid.
The occasion happened simply two days earlier than the second anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. United States troops pulled out from a two-decade army mission, that included Canadian involvement, within the nation on Aug. 15, 2021.
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The terrorist group’s rule of Afghanistan has led to widespread human rights abuses and gender-based violence, with ladies and ladies within the nation being disadvantaged of primary rights reminiscent of work and schooling.
The occasion was led by the Ottawa chapter of Canadian Girls for Girls in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan), a non-profit with the objective of enhancing human rights for Afghan ladies.
“The final two years, we’re witnessing every single day a brand new restriction, a brand new decree in opposition to ladies’s freedom, practising their rights,” mentioned Hosai Qasmi, a volunteer with CW4WAfghan and grasp of ceremonies on the occasion. “At the moment we need to do not forget that and permit the worldwide neighborhood, the Canadian authorities as effectively, to recollect what’s occurring in Afghanistan.”
Qasmi mentioned the group launched a petition calling on the worldwide neighborhood, United Nations businesses and human rights organizations to acknowledge what’s occurring in Afghanistan as a gender apartheid.
On high of recognizing the Taliban’s oppression of girls and ladies in Afghanistan as gender apartheid, Qasmi mentioned the group wish to see the Canadian authorities pledge humanitarian assist.
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“The factor that governments proper now can do is acknowledge what’s occurring inside Afghanistan, and it’s not solely in Afghanistan,” mentioned Qasmi, who moved to Canada from Afghanistan over a decade in the past. “Possibly this fireplace is at present burning in Afghanistan, however the flames will be can unfold all over the place else.”
Qasmi mentioned it’s “heartbreaking” to look at the Taliban’s affect on her house nation, notably the ban on ladies’ and ladies’s capability to go to high school and to work.
“I’ve spent most of my life in Afghanistan, born and raised there,” Qasmi mentioned. “I keep in mind the odor of the streets, I went to high school there. I feel all of the Afghan neighborhood and diaspora, every single day after we get up, the very first thing we do is have a look at the information and there may be by no means excellent news. It’s a way of shedding one thing that has at all times been so near your coronary heart.”
Many who gathered on Parliament Hill for the occasion held indicators condemning the Taliban and advocating for ladies’s rights, with some sporting T-shirts that learn, “Let Her Study.”
The rally featured singing, a rap efficiency and speeches from native lecturers, activists and politicians, together with member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Ottawa Centre Joel Harden, Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod and David Hill, metropolis councillor for Ward 3 Barrhaven West.
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Hill, a veteran who did two back-to-back excursions in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006, mentioned it’s “genuinely heartbreaking” what occurred two years in the past.
“I do really feel that Canada may have completed this in another way,” Hill mentioned. “I really feel that there’s been some abandonment and we simply have to maintain an consciousness of what’s occurring there immediately and assist out these grassroots organizations.”
Maria Homayun, a volunteer with CW4WAfghan, mentioned it’s essential to think about the psychological toll the Taliban’s management of Afghanistan is taking over ladies and ladies.
“I’ve an uncle with 4 daughters within the nation and so they actually have nowhere to go; there’s no faculty, there’s no playground, there’s no nothing,” mentioned Homayun, who was born in India, however moved to Canada when she was seven. “I can’t think about for them to assume that the one prospect they’ve in life remaining is both they handle to get in a foreign country or actually get married.
“They really feel defeated. There’s no finish in sight, there’s no mild on the finish of the tunnel for them. It’s extraordinarily unhappy to see.”
With information from The Canadian Press
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