This is David Lammy’s stark warning on Afghanistan and the worrying future for women and girls in the country.
Speaking on his LBC show after Taliban militants seized control of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul the MP said so many people will be oppressed.
Recalling his own ancestors David said for years there were people who “couldn’t be what they wanted to be.”
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“They were enslaved or colonised,” he said he was thinking of “those in LGBT communities who couldn’t love who they wanted to love.”
“The biggest story in many ways is the story of women, women fighting for equality, women fighting for the right to vote, fighting for the right to an education, to university, to jobs, to equal pay.”
David said so many of the “gains” made in Afghanistan were “gains made in women’s rights.”
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Branding the progress women have made in the country as “the biggest accomplishments,” David said women were making strides in the country like never before.”
“Women who previously had been subjected to beatings, to having to wear a burka, being banned from employment and education.”
“Having no rights.”
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Many are attempting to flee Afghanistan, worried that the country could descend into chaos or the Taliban could carry out revenge attacks against those who worked with the US or the government.
Many also fear the Taliban will reimpose the harsh interpretation of Islamic law that they relied upon when they ran Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Back then, women were barred from attending school or working outside the home.
They had to wear the all-encompassing burka and be accompanied by a male relative whenever they went outside.
The Taliban banned music, cut off the hands of thieves and stoned adulterers.
The Taliban have sought to present themselves as a more moderate force in recent years and say they will not exact revenge, but many Afghans are sceptical of those promises.
British troops are racing against the clock to get remaining UK nationals and their local allies out of Afghanistan following the dramatic fall of the country’s Western-backed government.
