"We are not talking to Taliban": Mackay

Based on Outlook Afghanistan English Daily Paper (Afghanistan) quoted from Pajhwak News Agency, the Chargé d’affaires of Canadian Embassy in Afghanistan Ron Hoffmann has said in an exclusive interview with Pajhwak on Friday May 3 2008 that they have not had any negotiations nor they have any plans to begin negotiations with the Taliban but their mission in Afghanistan is to support the government of Afghanistan in different arenas, especially strengthening of the government and reconstruction in this country.




This exclusive interview takes place when the news of negotiations of the Canadian Military officials with the Taliban were reflected in some Canadian press on these days which were then denied by the Canadian officials in Ottawa later.

Currently Canada has 2300 troops under NATO command in Afghanistan and they are mostly located in the southern province of Kandahar.

This new rumor spreads when in December 2007 two foreign diplomats(Marvin Peterson) British diplomat of the UN mission in Afghanistan and (Michael Sample) an Irish diplomat of the EU in Afghanistan were sent out from this country by the order of president Karzai after they were accused to be negotiating with the Taliban without informing the Afghan governmental officials in this regard, that was assumed to be unrelated to their tasks as well as illegal action which then later this matter was some how related to the issue of rejection of Lord Paddy Ashdown as the special representative of the UN Secretary General in Afghanistan by Karzai and reulted exchange of diplomatic words in between the two countries for a while.




Quoted from Outlook English Daily Paper website and Canadia Press;

OTTAWA – Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay is denying reports from Afghanistan that Canadian soldiers are reaching out to members of the Taliban to establish peace in the war-torn country.
Canadian military officials in Afghanistan have been quoted as saying they're trying to engage in a dialogue with insurgents – a move that federal New Democrat Leader Jack Layton has long supported.
"I was pleased to hear that our military on the ground were looking at opening up lines of communication with the insurgents," Layton said yesterday at a provincial NDP convention in St. John's.
Lt.-Col. Gordon Corbould, the new battle group commander, and Sgt. Tim Seeley, a civilian-military co-operation officer for Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, were quoted Thursday by the Globe and Mail as saying that channels were being opened to moderate Taliban. Other officials in Kandahar, who spoke privately, backed up the military's assessment.
But MacKay, who told The Canadian Press on Friday that those same officials don't speak for the federal government, took pains yesterday to reiterate the position.
"We are not talking to the Taliban. We are not having direct discussions with terrorists. We won't, will not, that will not change," MacKay said. "What we are doing obviously in reconstruction and development and daily contacts that happen is encouraging people to move away from the Taliban's influence, to renounce violence." (CP)

Read more in Glob and Mail dot come
Read more in Canadian Press
Read more in Outlook
Afghanistan Daily Paper website
Read More

The images of the Taliban

A few days ago, I read two Dari posts in www.kabulPress.org by Jafar Rezai an Afghan student and blog writer in Canada, which was actually his comments on two of foreign websites with some links; one of them was about “How the culture of suicide attacks entered in the culture of the Pashtoon terrorists group in Afghanistan called the Taliban”, a study by Brian Glyn William ¹ a associate professor and researcher for University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth who did this research for Jamestown Foundation ² (USA) and the next one was another interesting post in globe and mail.com website ³ that was titled “Talking to the Taliban” and were some interviews with them.

Seeing these two latest posts about the Taliban once again made me write the following paragraphs and my definitions of the Taliban since I have done research about them for making my feature film “The Keys to Paradise” about them and then list some films that were made about the Taliban or depicted the Taliban in some parts although there have been different opinions about the Taliban’s essence.



While many people in the world especially the people of the involved counties in Afghanistan war wonder about the re-empowerment of and the raise of Taliban again after their defeat in 2002 but the inefficiency of the Afghan government that spoils the international efforts in this country is one of the main reasons for this disaster.

The Taliban as the extremist forces in Afghanistan, as the soldiers of God for the other extremists, as an unresolved enigma for the people of the western world so far have been very well known features of insurgence, terror and intimidations to almost every one in the world.



The power of media has had a major role in their introduction to the world.
Artists, writers, painters, photographers, cartoonists and caricaturists have all written, drawn, painted or depicted them some how in their own ways.

If you go to Google search you find different sizes of Taliban’s' images and if you want to read about, then there are many links in the internet about them. If you look for them in the shelves of libraries, you can find books that are fully or partly about them.



A short background about the Taliban:
The word Taliban is heard a lot and day by day getting familiar to every one and because of the image they have given out, they are recognized by the foreigners sometimes, “the most conservative group” in the softest meaning, the “Pashtoons insurgents” or the “ the Pashtoon rabbles, “the extremists” and finally “the terrorists”.
While every one has his own understanding of the word Taliban but still this word brings a fear of terror and intimidation.

But the real meaning of the word Taliban doesn't mean all that what we see today.
Taliban is the plural for the word “Talib” that means seeker and the full Arabic word is TALIBULAELM that means “knowledge seeker” that was called to the scholars and religious students or knowledge seekers who were at first mislead by the Pakistani and Saudi Arabians to form a force to conquer Afghanistan.



So, apparently in the middle of the civil chaos in Afghanistan when a group of people of a particular ethnic “The Pashtoons” wanted to have the power first in the south, and then chance of ruling on the others throughout the country, they were supported by drug traffickers and smugglers when the country was already experiencing lack of rule of law, a chaos in the governing, popularity of opium cultivation, than any time before in the country they picked up guns and called the other young semi literate* Talibs or Taliban (who were studying religious lessons in mosques and madrasas in Pakistan) to join them for power and expansion of real Islam which was believed to be the way they themselves followed in the early 1990s while the actual history of their primary essence, rooting and development needs more discussions and we will written more in depth and details in the near future in this blog.



The first group of Taliban was born in southern province of Kandahar by the external support of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in Oct 1994 and then they expanded to Zabul, Helmand, Ghazni and other provinces until they reached in Kabul in Sep 1996 and took the governing power of the country and ruled until 2001 which is all apparent to almost all people of the world.


I am very interested to write how the Afghans or foreign filmmakers have depicted the Taliban in their feature films or documentaries.
Although there may have been different documentary and reportage films made by the foreign filmmakers and journalists which some how have been a kind of advantageous media coverage and free advertisement for them but here I would like to list some of the feature films that are made or going to be made about the Taliban or have depicted Taliban partly in them.



The latest film that was going to be made about the Taliban was "The Keys to Paradise" which was stopped in “Development period” while still we are looking for co-producers to support this project and do it the off borders of Afghanistan the soon there are facilities and possibilities to make it.

"The Keys to paradise"
Screenplay writer & Director: Mohammad Amin Wahidi
Production name: Deedenow Cinema Productions Afghanistan
Runtime: 60 minutes
Language: Dari and Pashto
Subtitle(s): English
Status: The project was stopped due to security problems of the screenwriter- director
Filming locations: To be rescheduled
Synopsis: please see the more details about this film in the link of the post about it.



The first film made after the Taliban about them was the Feature film OSAMA directed by famous Afghan director Seddiq Barmak and was filmed in 35 mm which was financially supported by Japanese and Iranian co-producers.
It is to say that this director had “The Opium War” another feature in 35 mm in post production in late 2007 which I don’t know more about.

“Osama”
Duration: 83 minutes
Screenplay writer: Seddiq Barmak
Director: Seddiq Barmak
Production year: 2003
Language: Dari
Subtitle: English
Filming locations: Kabul and its suburbs

Synopsis:
Osama is a girl who lives with her mother and grand mother in Kabul during the Taliban Regime. The Taliban prohibit the women doctors and her mother has no job any more and can not work in the hospital.
Then Osama has to get dressed as a boy to work in a shop for one his father’s friends.
One day the Taliban Mullahs take the boys by force to the Madrasas to teach religious lessons and Osama is taken with them.
During the lessons of who to take GHOSL “or Islamic bath” for girls and for boys, then the Mullah who teach these lessons realizes that Osama is not a girl but actually is a girl therefore they want to punish her, finally the teacher old Mullah releases her from the court of Taliban and marries the 12 years old Osama while he has already two other wives in the same house.



The Kite Runner (USA)
Duration: 128 minutes
Screenplay writer: (adapted) David Benioff
Novelist: Khaled Husseini
Director: Marc Forster
Production year: 2007
Language: Dari – English – Pashto
Subtitle: English
Filming locations: USA- China - Pakistan

Synopsis:

This film is currently on the screens of the cinemas in which the Taliban are not the main theme but has a review of the overall situation of the country during the Taliban in a long part of it; especially some scenes depicted in this film during the Taliban are; stoning the women, how wildly they behaved with the children, and what kind of people joined the Taliban for different purposes.



Kabul Express (India)
Duration: 105 minutes
Screenplay writer: Kabir Khan, Sandeep Srivastava
Director: Kabir Khan
Production year: 2006
Language: Dari – Urdu -
Subtitle: English
Filming locations: Kabul and its suburbs and Parwan (Afghanistan) and India

Synopsis:
This film shows the relation of the Taliban with Pakistan.
The main story runs on two Indian journalists who are kidnapped by a Pakistani Taliban soldier in Afghanistan when the Taliban were escaping under the American Air strikes in late 2001.
But the film changes its direction and interferes in Afghan ethnic clashes in between the Hazaras and the Tajik fighters rather than the main theme, and for this reason screening of this film was banned by the Ministry of Information and Culture in 2006 in Afghanistan.



“Escape from the Taliban” (India) 2003
Duration: 133 – 166 minutes
Screenplay writer: (adapted) Ujjal Chattopadyaya
Book writer: Sushmita Banerjee
Director: Ujjal Chattopadyaya
Production year: 2003
Language: Urdu
Subtitle: English

“Khaak”
Screenplay writers: Sayed Rahim Sayedi- Assadullah Salehi
Director: Sayed Rahim Sayedi
Duration: 90 minutes Production year: 2004
Language: Dari and Pashto
Subtitle(s): English
Filming locations: Kabul- Parwan- Kapisa- Panjsher

Synopsis: This is a pro Northern Alien warlords film and has been made under their strict security and support. This shows the five years resistance of the Northern Alien Warlords against the Taliban. Actually it was one of the three films that I introduced in my cinema show on ATN in 2006 that brought me some messages of threats on that time.



“Spring of hope” 2006 (depicted the Taliban in some parts)
Screenplay writer:
Director: Hashmat Khan
Duration: minutes
Production year: 2006
Language: Dari and Pashto
Subtitle(s): English



“The Taliban”
Screenplay writer: Seddiq Abedi
Director: Seddiq Abedi
Duration: 100 minutes
Production year:
Language: Dari and Pashto
Subtitle(s): English



Kandahar
Film Title: Safar e Qandahar in English (Trip to Kandahar)
Screenplay writer: Mohsen Makhmalbaaf
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaaf
Duration: 85 minutes
Production year: 2000-2001
Language: Dari and Pashto
Subtitle(s): English

Where does finally this man reach following this path?!

“Where there is smoke, there must be some fire.” When the foreign minister of Canada in his trip to Afghanistan expresses his concern about how Kandahar province is being governed by its current governor Assadullah Khaled, he must had realized the existing corruption in the administration of Kandahar Province whose governor is supported strongly by President Karzai and his brothers.


Canadian F.M Maxime Bernier with Dadfar Espanta Afghan F.M

The current Afghan Government under Karzai’s leadership in addition to be in direct battle with its apparent enemy the Taliban and in compromise with the former warlords by sharing the power with them, suffers from a more dangerous disease that is the administrative and financial corruptions existing not only in its official departments but also in the family of the president and some of his appointees like provincial governors and district administrators.


Assadullah Khaled, governor of Kandahar who has hand in drug trafficking

Corruption is like a very dangerous disease, enters into a system and makes its roots calmly without showing any sign in the beginning but then when its consequences are evidenced sometimes it is too late to stand against it.


Wali Karzai- President Karzai's brother who has hand in drug trafficking

After evidence of existing of financial and administrative corruption including drug trafficking and dealing in Karzai’s administration and his family business that not only waste the efforts of assisting countries but also make millions of the Afghans suffer from instability, poverty and injustice, it is now on the International Community member states to decide whether or not to show reaction to this existing corruption in the government of Afghanistan which is supported by them; if they show reaction and follow it seriously, it is meant that “when ever we attempt to stop loss, we began benefiting” otherwise knowing all these realities if the international community ignores it or would not try to stop it, they are also accomplice of Karzai administration in this big shameful failure.


Gul Agha Sherzai - currently governor of Nangarhar, former governor of Kandahar

Read more in this regard in a Canadian website

Will seven thousand more troops be useful?!

The US secretary of defense, Robert Gates has announced sending of 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan by next year, when the security is getting worse day by day in this country.

These seven thousand more troops will be mainly located in the southern provinces as the USA has announced to re-Americanize the mission in the southern provinces by getting the lead of NATO forces in the southern provinces since there was less of interest for this mission among the other NATO member countries.

It is good though to take serious the issue of security by moving serious steps forward for the normalization of the situation and stabilization of the government but there are some more options that would seem more concrete and more useful to normalize the situation.

In January 2008 USA announced that there will be three thousand more troops in Afghanistan in this year as the Taliban will increase their attacks when it gets warmer, and after that news the number of Taliban’s attacks has increased in different corners of the country.



Just a couple of weeks ago the Afghan Officials raised the point of Afghanizing the security and peace keeping mission of the country at least first in Kabul by locating the Afghan National Army within the city of Kabul and locating foreign troops out of the urban area, which they thought it might have a better impact on the people and will decrease the number of civilian causalities as a result of suicide attacks.

As a matter of fact, without measuring and evaluating the real capability and sufficiency of the Afghan National Police and National Army, this plan did not seem to be practical in reality instead it was understood a primary compromise of the Afghan government with the repeated demand of the Taliban regarding weakening of the role of foreign troops in the country.



The attack on the parade day on April 27th once again showed that; Karzai has to do more although it is late, the Afghan Army and Police should be really strengthened which is the responsibility of he international community, and the Taliban should not be underestimated, because they are like wounded snake and can sting any time they have chance.

Therefore, we think sending more US. Troops to Afghanistan may be useful but for short term and temporarily, like past six years but instead we emphasize on the fundamental stabilization of Afghanistan which relies on how strong and professional the national police and army of the country are and this is the responsibility of international supporters of Afghanistan other wise the situation will still be fragile and instable as past six years.

Karzai; the mistakes he had and the challenges he has!

When there is question of whether he is still interested to stand for next presidential elections or not, Karzai cheerfully replies; “I won’t let the ground for the others, as long as the people will vote for me, because there are still things which I had in my plan and did not complete them yet”.




Perhaps the strength of security and intelligence forces of Karzai’s government was measured in the attack on the sixteenth anniversary and parade of Saur 8th the beginning of civil war and blood shed in the country.




This attack in which the military forces were escaping faster than the others, once again showed that not enough efforts are made by the international community for the training, equipping and strengthening of the Afghan security forces in this country within past six years.

Although this attacked seemed to be a warning for Karzai and the international supporters, but showed two things clearly;
First it showed how the admin and financial corruptions plus ethnic based relationships can clear a path for the influence of the Taliban and Hezb e Islami Members inside the security forces and intelligence services of the country, and second how weak still the Afghan Army and Police are after their rehabilitation by the international community.

Lately Karzai had an interview with New York Times in which he criticized the way of conduct of war by the American and British Forces in Anti Terrorism Campaign in Afghanistan, instead he asked for a softer behavior with the Taliban who are Afghans and want to join the peace process, but perhaps it may be late to criticize these forces now when the situation of the country is getting more complicated day after day and finally on the 8th of Saur these Afghan Taliban who are loved by Karzai thanked him with a deadly attack.


Some people think, as Karzai is loosing his popularity within the country day by day and his reputation is questioned by the international community for his weakness in is administration; he criticized the American and British forces behavior in the war in Afghanistan just to draw a totally independent figure out of him for the Afghan Intellectuals, on the other hand he defended the Taliban to attract them as well to have their support for the next presidential election.

It was not the first time that Karzai expresses his sympathy with the Taliban as the Pashtoons that may be a potential supporting force for him one day, but before also in his interview with BBC Persian has said that the Pashtoons themselves are the victim of the terrorism and the enemies of Afghanistan but he never named clearly who these enemies of Afghanistan are.

Currently in Afghanistan the government is still fragile and instable; there is not enough security and any little attack like 8th of Saur can weaken the moral of the people. The country is completely dependent on the imports of food from primary neighboring countries, and any change in these countries’ policies regarding import of food to Afghanistan can have direct and indirect effects on stability of economy and life the people in Afghanistan.



While most of people still live in poverty, the lately raise of costs of primary food is one of the biggest challenges in front of the government and can lead the government towards another crises; human catastrophe of hanger.

Nowadays most people think that Karzai has been fail during his six years time; interim, transitional and elected governments, and therefore there is no more hope for him to do better things hereafter either.

When the people ask that why not enough work is done for the welfare of people after almost seven years of the new era, why there is no accountability for the billions of money that has entered into Afghanistan as assistance and aids by the international community, why there is still financial corruption in the government machinery,
why the capacity of the Afghan defense and security is not built yet, why there is still violence in the country, why still the human rights is violated in the country, why there is not equality in between men and women in the country, how long will it go on this way and many more unanswered whys and questions, the only repeated answer for all these critical questions is just “the war of thirty can not be compensated in short term” which is not a reasonable answer by now.

The new era which was in the beginning titled the new era of democracy and freedom for Afghanistan is slowly on going to change its name to the black era for Afghanistan as its blackness spreads in different arenas of the country.

Peace, security, freedom and democracy

In spite of all difficulties, there were two main priorities for the people of Afghanistan for which they welcomed the interference of the international community in their country, and they are still as necessary as air to breathe for them; the first one is peace and security and the second one is freedom and democracy. The peace and security which they make and stabilize their lives in and the freedom and democracy in which without any threat, impose and intimidation or wrong religious interference in their affairs they would practice, their thoughts, ideas, beliefs and activities.
So far Karzai administration has not been able to fulfill the first one of these two priorities which was peace and security and the next one is also going under pressure day by day.

Applying Freedom and Democracy in the country is fully in the hand of the government and does not need any foreign aids or assistance for it, and is not dependant on anything external and or out of their reach thus any kind of excuse or pressure is nothing except intentional sabotage of the peace process in the country.

Some people think that Karzai after many failures in his administration, is confused what to do with the weaknesses he has therefore he is like a drowning person who claws in whatsoever comes in his hand.

Dreaming of maintaining his presidential seat at least for another period is one of his passions and does not let him ignore trying for it, by any possible means.

One of these possible means would be shooting an arrow for two or three preys at once;


Lately giving a hand to and using the Shora e Ulama (The Religious Scholars Council) and Hezb e Islami members (The fundamentalist Islamic Party lead by Hekmatyar) by the help of his Ministry of Information and Culture for enforcing more pressures on the media can have three possible consequences in his predicted formula;

The definite consequence is to suffocate and censor the free media (especially the non Pashtoon media that are the main critics of his team and his administration) before the election; therefore the private televisions are warned and censored and the free websites are filtered by his hard working team.

The two other possibilities are first whether to attract the Taliban by such policy to join him and make a strong front against the non- Pashtoon oppositions at least before the elections, and if this would not be likely to happen, then he thinks now he should put pressures on the media against the wish of people and then by removing these pressures from the media as an arbitrator in between the people and the Shora e Ulama, he thinks he would get back his popularity among the people and then will receive enough votes from them, which is not a fair formula because when a leader or a president sacrifices freedom and democracy for his personal plans does not worth a vote while still the assent of the international community is also critical for his alternative.



President Karzai’s apathetic reaction regarding murder of Ajmal Naqshbandi the young journalist who was killed by the Taliban last year in April, his meaningful silence regarding the death sentence of Parwiz Kambakhsh the young journalist and lately his deliberately support of decision of Ministry of Information and Culture for banning Indian soap- operas on five private television channels of Afghanistan are his continuous mistakes and obvious attacks against culture, media and freedom of speech in the country and apparent violation of human rights; the rights of access to information, press and media by the first person of the country.




We concern about the latest news which says; there are attempts to attack on TOLO TV by the Shora e Ulama to close it down, while on the other hand it is heard that there are efforts made to destroy www.KabulPress.org too, which are the two freest media in the country, but the people must be very clever about these cruel attempts and keep on their struggle for freedom and democracy through legal and peaceful demonstrations and objections against these policies of Karzai’s Administration.

That is why, for most people the current Afghanistan is like an empty frame without an image or at least with a blur image that does not have a clear identity; neither there is democracy in it nor it is a fully fundamentalist country but paddling in between which is a dilemma for the world.

Two days in Bologna

From left; Lorenzo Bianchi, Antonio Martino, Greta Barbieri and Amin Wahidi photo by: Mattia Baglieri

I had a short trip to Bologna where I spent about two days.
Actually I was invited there by YAP Bologna Branch (Youth Action for Peace) which is an international movement for peace and conducts social- cultural – artistic and awareness programs in different countries including Italy.
I was invited there for a conference about Afghanistan.

Conference about Afghanistan; current situation, cultural activities, and freedom of speech

The conference took place in Political Science Department on Strada Maggiore. In this conference there were two other speakers too;

Lorenzo Bianchi a famous Italian Journalist working for QUOTIDIANO NAZIONALE
Antonio Martino an Italian documentary filmmaker in Bologna

The main issues discussed in this conference were; challenges of freedom of speech in Afghanistan, the re-empowerment of the fundamentalists in the branches of the government and the administrative corruptions in government of Afghanistan
The program went on very well and present people in this conference had some questions and were answered by the speakers at the conference. As my Italian is not very good I spoke in English and there was a professional translator “Greta Barbieri” who did a really good job.

Meeting new people:
In addition to meet some interesting people there; Lorenzo Bianchi, Isabella Nicoli, Francesco, Aura, Mattew, Angelo, Antonio Martino, Sara, Greta and Mattia I have had a chance to see some interesting places of Bologna by the help of two friends from YAP Angelo and Mattew.

Short film screening:
Again in the evening there was a chance to screen two shorts which we screened before in Milan.

Two petty things:
On the second day, before coming back to Milan as I had a chance to see some of the places like libraries, universities, city towers, churches, I saw a man in the main square of the city (Piazza Maggiore) like giving speech. He had a bicycle, a small stool to sit on and some newspapers and was talking to people and discussing the issues of newspapers with them, and there were people who took part and they also discussed their opinions about the current situation of the country, about politics and the politicians etc.
It was very interesting for me when I knew that this man does not have any work but every day brings newspapers and begin discussing about the current affairs with different people and his audiences are young and old. Every one is given a chance to talk and just share and exchange their ideas which is actually like a public awareness program.
I wish this could happen in Afghanistan that one day any one can discuss issues of political, religious and current affairs in public with the person without fear, censorship and intimidation that is the real democracy and freedom of speech.

The second thing that I wasn’t expecting at least in Italy was a little censorship in my interview in two papers of Bologna and Milan.

QN IL Resto del Carlino (Bologna) 23 Aprile 2008 Anno 123-Numero 97
QN IL Giorno (Milano Metropoli) 23 Aprile 2008 Anno 53- numero 97

The interview was done in English via email by Mr. Lorenzo Bianchi who is a nice man with a working experience of my age, and then when I read the Italian version published in Italian papers I did not find a part which then I realized was censored and that was about my current situation;

lorenzo Bianchi: Did you get the political asylum from Italy?

Amin Wahidi: Not a fully political asylum yet which I have asked for it and it is in process but all things work here very slowly.
For the moment I have received a short term permission of stay, which I think will be renewed after it expires and then the decision is in the hand of the government of Italy.

I hope the government of Italy would consider a difference in between the political asylum seekers whose lives are in danger because of their thoughts and their activities and the labor and economical immigrants.

To see the program in YAP website

To see the interview in Italian

Let’s not just say we support freedom of speech in Afghanistan, let’s do it!

Basir Ahang is another Afghan journalist who has recently suffered death threats and been forced to flee the country.

Recently we learned that Basir, a 27 year-old Afghan journalist who worked for “Farda Radio” and sometimes for the Italian Paper “La Republica,” was not missing as previously thought. In reality, he has had to flee the country because of the death threats he and his family have received from the Taliban and other extremists in Afghanistan.

We must condemn these death threats. They are one way the Taliban targets the intellectuals and young media activists of the country in addition to their killings of many innocent civilians on daily basis. We would like to express sympathy with this latest target of terror and wish him safety. We have heard he has come to Italy; we hope that he will not give up his efforts working for freedom of speech wherever he is. That is the most important thing for his country.

While Parwiz Kambakhsh has not been released yet, he has been shifted to Kabul to await further trial. Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the secular Afghan scholar, women’s rights activist and writer-journalist, who was arrested and put on trial in 2005 for voicing controversial ideas about Islam, has recently been arrested by authorities in Iran without any clear reason. There has not been further news about him since then, though the Afghan Government Foreign Ministry, through its diplomats in Iran, have begun to talk with the Iranian government about his release.

A few months ago, Hanif Elham, the active journalist-producer and text editor for Ariana Radio and Television Network, was threatened with death by the Taliban. The threats came in response to his daily radio program, in which he revealed the crimes and genocides of the Taliban throughout their history.

This shows the worsening of the situation for free media activists in Afghanistan. There are problems and pressure from multiple sides: the Taliban, the former Jihadis, the warlords and the governmental institutions have all played a part.

Though some people may believe that the escaping journalists are in fact abandoning their country, we should keep in mind that the media and journalists are the eyes and the ears of the society. When the government not only fails to guarantee the journalists’ safety but creates pressures and obstacles for them, it is the responsibility of their country to show sympathy for and support those who serve as their eyes and ears. It is also the responsibility of the countries where they flee for protection to care for them.

The people criticizing the fleeing journalists should remember that if they did not escape the country would likely be killed. They should consider the close relationship of the government to the Taliban, and the advances the Taliban have made in the government through the Ministry of Information and Culture. Instead of defending the rights of journalists, this ministry now makes traps for them.

Those criticizing the journalists should remember the fates of those like Parwiz Kambakhsh, who are jailed or delivered directly to the Taliban. They should remember that, if a media activist is jailed by the government, there is still some hope or possibility of his release through the intervention of international journalistic organizations—but who will release them from the hands of terrorists whose actions are not based on any human logic? Who will ensure his life when even the presidential palace in the center of the capital is not safe from the Taliban and Al Qaeda’s attacks, even though that government is attempting to compromise with them?

No matter who he is, someone who is punished or threatened for speaking freely has to be assured safety. He has to be supported and protected by any country he comes to for help. That is how freedom of speech is promoted and defended.

In defense of the decisions by many journalists to flee Afghanistan, I would like to remark that, in a country where ignorance is waiting for any chance to spread again; where any knowledge is condemned easily by a Fatwa from Mullahs reliant on a flawed understandings of Islam; where such leaders maintain the trappings of Islam, such as growing beards and reciting the Quran, without knowing and acting on what it says; where such men pray without knowing what they are saying in their prayers; where people are being misled through their emotions and sensations in the name of religion; where one sees violence instead of peace and love in all corners; where the border between life and death is very narrow, narrower than a hair; where you find mines, bullets and bombs in the spring instead of blooms; if the people in such a country are not educated about current affairs by the media and journalists that are the eyes and ears of the society, will the existing corrupt government function the way people want?

In a situation like this, if the journalists are not protected, the result will be a society blinded and suffocated with unheard voices.

The day will come when there will be no threats and intimidation against journalists or civilians in Afghanistan, because there is always a light after any darkness, but it takes time. It will require more struggles and more solidarity from the people with the media. They must ask their government to provide for the protection of journalists and media activists.

Edited by Nathan Hartle