00:00Viewers, today I have with me Mariam Soleimankhil. She's a member of Afghanistan's parliament in
00:21exile. Thank you so much, Mariam, for speaking with Asianate News. You know, we both are speaking
00:27at a time when yesterday we saw there was a major earthquake in Afghanistan, magnitude 6,
00:33and India was one of the first countries who've actually, you know, came out not only expressing
00:39condolences, definitely Prime Minister Modi and Jai Shankar tweeted about it, but it also extended
00:45help to Afghans. You know, this is not the first time that we have seen, no matter which government
00:52is in power, we have seen that consistently Indians have extended their help for Afghans,
00:58whether it was before U.S. invasion or definitely after U.S. withdrawal. How significant is this
01:05relationship between both the countries? Well, first and foremost, thank you for having me today
01:09on this rather solemn day where we've lost countless lives. I mean, one family alone lost 17 members of
01:18their family, their wife, their kids, everyone. And during the darkest times, India stood up
01:25immediately. They didn't hesitate for a minute. There weren't words of condemnation. There weren't
01:30words of, I'm saying condemnation because of everything that's happened in the past, but they
01:34weren't words of sympathy. It was just action. And India has countless times done the same thing.
01:41Whenever a tragedy happens, when a tragedy occurs, they've never politicized it. And they've been there
01:46on the humanitarian level, helping the people on the ground. So the Afghan nation appreciates it and
01:52sees it. I think last to last year, we saw that U.S. actually cut down the aid for Afghans.
01:59And they said that the reason was because it was going into the corpus of Taliban. You know,
02:05people there need basic health facilities, basic education, basic facilities. How important it is
02:14for world's oldest democracy to actually come to the rescue of Afghans? You know, the first,
02:21the hafazard withdrawal that happened in August 2021. And then it cuts down aid. Do you think that
02:26Washington needs to relook at its policy, which it holds towards Afghanistan?
02:31I think when we look at the word democracy and what's the oldest democracy, we can look into cultures
02:36like your country and my country. And it's built on an older version of democracy, where we really
02:42empower the people. And we have tribal elders, and we have real representation of our people.
02:49So that aside, one of the global powers is the United States, and they're the ones who
02:54control it all. Yes, we need health care, we need education, but we can't ostracize half the
03:02population, which is the women, right? So right now, if you want to help the people on a grassroots
03:08level, you want to open an NGO, the first thing you have to do is register with the Taliban.
03:13So that means only Taliban approved NGOs are allowed to work in Afghanistan. This mechanism
03:19needs to be changed. People need the aid from the UN, from the United States, from the whole world,
03:27not just the US, but handed to the right hands, the trusted hands, the Afghan people to be able to
03:33disperse that aid correctly, where that money does not get into the hands of terrorists.
03:38How much aid do you have to give for women's health? I'll give you an example. When women
03:44aren't allowed to become midwives or doctors anymore, and they're not allowed to see male
03:49doctors. So who are you helping at the end of the day? So not just a mechanism for aid needs to be made,
03:55but the mechanism where women feel in control of their own lives, in control of their own health,
04:01in control of their own education. None of that exists right now. So handing over money to the
04:08Taliban isn't the answer. And recognition of the Taliban isn't the answer as well, unless the people
04:16of Afghanistan recognize themselves first before anyone in the globe does. And India in particular
04:24has done a great job in being able to politically work with the Taliban without recognizing them,
04:30with understanding what the nuances is in regard to women's rights and what's happening.
04:37So yes, aid needs to get dispersed, aid needs to get to Afghanistan, but in the correct way,
04:43to the most deprived people in Afghanistan. And so that's a little bit more complicated than just
04:48opening up the money lines again.
04:50You know, I remember one conversation that I had with another member of Afghanistan's parliament in
04:57exile, Mirvais Balkhi. He was the former education minister in Afghanistan. And he told me that we
05:03talk about international community, but where it is, I mean, it has been so many years that Taliban
05:09has taken over Afghanistan. There are condemnation definitely across the world, but on ground,
05:15there is nothing happening. You know, human rights abuses continue to happen. Women continue to
05:20suffer. What exactly can the so-called international community do?
05:25The international community is saying nothing. Afghan blood, it feels worthless at this point. You see
05:33children dying. You see women being murdered. There was a story of a Talib killing two of his wives
05:38because he said that they were sick. So that goes unanswered. If disputes happen and a woman goes
05:45missing, it's called an internal issue within the household and no one takes it seriously. There are no
05:51human rights organizations that I see on the ground. There is no safe place for Afghan women or Afghan
05:56youth or Afghan men, anyone, any Afghan citizen to go to and ask for help or just record the atrocities
06:04that's happening to them. So there's very few outlets. And at that point, what can you do whenever
06:09you know the world has abandoned you? What do you do? You start living under those rules. You're too
06:15afraid to stand up against what's happening. There is no way for you to raise your voice.
06:19So eventually it's going to implode. When the people get hungry enough, sadly to speak,
06:26but that's the direction it's going towards. The Taliban are not taking care of the Afghan nation and
06:31they're going to have to pay for it eventually. Do you think that India being the world's largest
06:36democracy and definitely, you know, the goodwill that it shares with Afghans, people to people
06:40connect, do you think that India can do more in order to actually address these human rights issues?
06:47Of course. Of course. India has built up strong reputation amongst the Afghan people,
06:54the Afghan nation, and it can be built more on that. The first thing that the Indians can do
06:59is supply more scholarships to Afghan women, support them online, support them any way they can
07:08to educate them, to help them, to empower them, to speak, to only send female delegates to Afghanistan
07:14to speak with the Taliban. That's one step that every country in the world should do.
07:19And that's the only way to break the ice is to bring financial pressure on them as well as political
07:24pressure on the Taliban to say, hey, you know, women are also human beings as well. They deserve a right
07:29to have their voices heard. They deserve a right to be seen as human beings. We're not asking for
07:35much. Afghan women are not asking for much. They're asking to be seen as human beings. And you don't
07:40hear as much coming out of Afghanistan these days because they're lived by the international community.
07:46So from India to the United States to all of the Islamic world, especially the Islamic world,
07:53which I haven't seen anything from, why are they not building that bridge? Why are they not
07:58building that bridge for Afghan women, for other Muslims to come in and speak with the Taliban and
08:03begin this? It's not happening. They're intimidating the entire world with their version of Islam,
08:10which they've self-proclaimed said that we are the only Islamic nation in the world. So that says it all.
08:16Under Taliban, there is an oppression, you know, which is going on in Afghanistan. But when it comes
08:20to cross-border terrorism, Afghanistan is again suffering at the hands of Pakistan. How do you view this?
08:26I think India and Afghanistan have suffered for decades. Since 1947, the attacks on Kashmir was
08:33happening. But we can't just look at it as India and Pakistan. The entire world suffers
08:38from terrorism coming out of Pakistan, from Bangladesh to, we have to remember, Osama bin
08:44Laden was found only a few kilometers away from one of the most important military bases in Pakistan.
08:50Pakistan. And it's a safe haven for terrorists. And just a few days ago, after the floodings that
08:58happened in Pakistan, you saw the heads of Lashkar Taiba on social media, video proof, walking around
09:06with the leaders of the ISI, with the military generals, with their political figures, handing out
09:11help to the people. What does that do? That shows them in a holy light. That shows them whitewashing
09:17their crimes. And that helps the recruiting process keep on going. And who suffers? Not
09:22just Afghans, not Indians, but the entire global community. We have Asim Muneer, who's threatening
09:28nuclear annihilation on the entire world. And then the next day, President Trump is having
09:33breakfast with him, right? So how can a man blackmail an entire global society with nuclear
09:40weapons, harbor terrorists, create an entire economy based off of terrorism, and still be
09:47allowed to have nuclear weapons? That's the real question that haunts me all the time, is
09:53that this country can technically threaten the entire world with nuclear annihilation, harbor
09:59Osama bin Laden, create dozens, countless terrorists, dozens of terrorist organizations and countless
10:06terrorists, be responsible for killing countless people, 4 million to be exact Afghans, since
10:15all of these cold wars and Mujahideen wars and Taliban have been created. And they still
10:21have nuclear weapons. So the world has a lot of consequences to see from this mess that we
10:27call Pakistan today.
10:28And recently, we saw that Shanghai Cooperation Organization Grouping also condemned Pahel
10:34Gaam attack. This is a big news for India, because ironically, Pakistan is also a member
10:40of SCO. But this joint statement, which has come out, it's a big win for India. How do you
10:47look at this joint statement? Of course, there are big countries involved in it. There are Central
10:53Asian nations, which are very close to Pakistan, condemning what's happened in Kashmir.
10:58How do you look at it?
11:01I think it's long overdue. I think they should have condemned it earlier. I think it's great
11:05that they condemned it. But let's see action behind it. Where are the sanctions? Where
11:09are they holding accountable? We see the head of Lashkar Taiba openly walking around having
11:14events in Pakistan. Why is he not arrested? Why is he not put to court? So it's a good step
11:20in the right direction. But we need to see more from the SCO.
11:24What's the future that you see for Afghanistan? I mean, it happened in 2021 that Taliban took
11:31over Kabul. But since then, you know, nothing much has changed in Afghanistan. Every now and
11:38then we see that diktat has been issued by Taliban, you know, more human rights abuses. What is it
11:46that you foresee can happen in future in terms of Afghanistan in terms of the people of Afghanistan?
11:53The easy answer would be a very sad answer that history would repeat itself. But I'm I'm an optimist.
12:01I believe that we've learned our lessons. And I can see that people's eyes have been opened up about
12:06Pakistan. You can see that every single time one of the resistance groups, any of the resistance
12:12groups, any human being that goes towards Pakistan should try to get help again to come and take over
12:17Afghanistan is shunned by the entire community. I have hope and I have faith in the people of
12:22Afghanistan. I do believe that we're in an interconnected world due to technology. I think that there's a lot
12:28happening behind the scenes that most people can't talk about in social media. And eventually,
12:34I believe that a free Afghanistan will happen where the people decide what their future is.
12:39And that's the only thing I hope for is I don't want to see warlords. I don't want to see past
12:43politicians. I don't need to see anyone from before. But I believe that the youth of Afghanistan,
12:49I believe that the newer generation of Afghanistan is so interconnected. And what moves them more
12:56is the positive people like how the Indians helped Afghans, right? This is changing minds
13:02in Afghanistan. It's inspiring people. I truly believe that a brighter future is there. And the
13:08new generation is going to be the one who creates it. And the natural opposition is women. I do believe
13:15that if given a chance, that women can create a truly peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan, which will
13:23create a truly peaceful and prosperous region, which will create a truly peaceful and prosperous world.
13:29So that's my hope. That's my dream. And I believe that it will happen one day.
13:34You know, you talk about people who are in Afghanistan and suffering at the hands of Taliban. But
13:39of course, there are people like you who had to, you know, kind of flee Afghanistan, leave their homeland.
13:44It is also a tragedy. I mean, what is the general sentiment in Afghan diaspora, who is now in exile in,
13:50you know, different countries, UK, US? It's a collective trauma. Me and my colleagues have
13:56talked about this many times. It's a different type of PTSD. It's a different type of survivor's
14:01guilt. I think many of us regret leaving the country. And it's hard. You have a better life,
14:10you're safer, you have luxuries in life whenever you live outside of Afghanistan. But you watch your
14:16own people crumbling. You watch your own people having no rights. You watch your own people
14:22just losing your culture, losing your identity, losing who you are. The culture that my parents
14:27raised me with, the culture that most of my colleagues were raised in, that's being taken away.
14:33And Islamist extremist ideology is being replaced from that beautiful culture, those beautiful
14:40traditions that we had. So that's, that's traumatizing. So majority of us are very traumatized.
14:48And the worst part is, whenever you speak about it, most of the international community will say,
14:54well, hey, you're not in the country anymore, you can't speak. But whenever you're in the country,
14:59you can't speak because you have a gun pointed at your head. So who's allowed to speak? It's almost
15:03like they've, they've shut our mouths by force, and they have guns to all of our heads. When each person
15:08that's left Afghanistan is still deeply connected and deeply rooted back home. So every Afghan voice,
15:15every person in exile right now, they have something to say. And it's not just their words. We're all
15:23connected with people back home, who give us messages and depend on us to relay that message
15:28to the rest of the world. And that's the only way that they feel seen or heard. So thank you again for
15:34giving me this opportunity to speak. Because it's not just me speaking, it's the people who call on
15:39me and count on me and write me letters and send me voice messages day in and day out, who see people
15:45like me as their hope as their light. So thank you for extending that like and reflecting it throughout
15:52the world.
