Angelina Jolie has shared a letter she says she received from an Afghan girl sharing a warning about the state of women’s rights under the Taliban.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, two weeks before the US was set to complete the withdrawal of its troops in the region, ending a 20-year war.
Jolie, a longtime humanitarian, wrote on Instagram: “A young woman in #Afghanistan sent me this letter. I’m protecting her identity, but she hasn’t been able to go back to school since the Taliban seized power.”
The actor then shared an excerpt from the letter, which reads: “I feel like women don’t have any right to speak or put their word forward. The rights of the woman are taken away from them and they are not allowed to do anything in the country.
“Few weeks back when the Taliban arrested two of the women who raised their voices in order to ask for the rights of woman and freedom, I just thought, that this is the end and I might never be able to go outside again or even be able to speak as I am a girl.”
Jolie urged her followers to “please track what is happening in Afghanistan” and to help ensure the country’s women and girls are not forgotten.
The Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit think tank of which Jolie became a member in 2007, published a news report on the state of women’s rights in Afghanistan in January.
It listed new guidance issued in December 2021 by the Taliban, which bars women from traveling more than 45 miles away from home without a male relative. Other guidance issued in November 2021 barred TV networks from airing TV dramas with female actors.
