Dear friends,
If you have been preoccupied by the events in Afghanistan, I advise you to read a very personal and riveting account of the extraordinary changes that occurred in the country following the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Photojournalist Lynsey Addario’s depictions of the Afghan women she met — under Taliban rule and in the years that followed — illustrate the complex truth of the era of US occupation. Manizha Naderi, a founder of Women for Afghan Women, described the effects of suppressing the Taliban for almost twenty years:
“Before the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, there was nothing, no infrastructure, no legal system, no educational system, nothing there. And in the last 20 years, everything was re-created in the country, from education, to the legal system, to social, to economics … Women have gained everything. Not just women, but the Afghans in general have gained a lot.”
The resurgence of the Taliban and the collapse of secular society is a tremendous tragedy. A woman who recounted a sadistic beating she received from Taliban militants in 1999 also told Addario something about the current situation that is a little bit hopeful:
[T]here is a new generation of Afghan women today, women who can’t remember what it was like to live under the Taliban. “They are full of energy, hope, and dreams. They are not like me, as I was 20 years back. They’re more alert. They’re communicating with the world. It’s not [the] Afghanistan that was burned in a civil war. It’s a developed, free Afghanistan, with the free media, with women.” The Taliban is taking territory, Barakzai says, “but not the hearts and minds of people.”
My friend Juliet Young, an educator who consults in conflict-affected communities here and abroad, asked me to mention VOICE, another great organization working with Afghan women and girls.
Juliet described the leader of the organization, her friend Mendy Marsh, as “one of the most tireless and fearless take-no-shit human rights activists I've ever met.” Here’s what VOICE is doing now to support Afghan women and girls:
Helping them find safe passage out of the crisis by staying in daily contact and following their lead.
Conducting women-centered security workshops for those who remain in the country.
Amplifying their voices in creative, safe and dignified ways as they navigate new realities in a drastically shifted world.
Support our Afghan sisters by contributing to VOICE.
Here in the US, we’re on the verge of our own refugee crisis.
American tenants’ collective unpaid rent bill now totals more than $20 billion dollars.
The debt falls disproportionately on single-parent families, and that means that if the CDC’s eviction moratorium cannot withstand the Supreme Court’s scrutiny, millions more American children will become homeless.
Earlier this month, the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance took some important steps to improve the process for disseminating rent relief funds to tenants and landlords. They fixed the glitch that did not allow applicants to save their work on a partial application and added a feature so that applicants can check the status of their applications. They also reduced the amount of documentation needed to apply.
On her first day, Governor Hochul directed the state to spend an additional $1 million for outreach to raise awareness about the relief program and the eviction protections for tenants who apply. In addition she reassigned staff to work with landlords to complete pending application to speed up payments.
Contact Governor Hochul to ask her to sign the slate of fair housing measures to train real estate professionals and hold them accountable to prevent housing discrimination. Here’s a ready-made message.
Benjamin’s support for criminal justice reform, shutting down Rikers, divesting from prisons, and tenant rights puts him in line with many in the leftwing of his party.
It remains to be seen whether Benjamin will have a meaningful role. It’s clear that he is intended to balance Hochul’s reelection ticket. Still, the new governor strikes me as a person inclined to work with the people around her.
The plan to shutter Rikers Island is expected to take six more years but there is a serious crisis at hand. Five people incarcerated there have committed suicide since last December, with many other serious attempts. The staffing shortages have given rise to pervasive fear among both correction officers and those who are locked up.
Mary Lynne Werlwas, the director of the Prisoner’s Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, said that the city’s jails were more dangerous today than they had been at any time in the past 50 years.
“The city has completely lost control and as a result, people are not being protected from violence and are locked in the housing areas for days with no food, showers, access to lawyers or medical visits,” she said.
More than 75 percent of people of the 6000+ in custody in the city’s jails have not been convicted of a crime. This is a humanitarian emergency.
Call on the mayor to release people awaiting trial from the city’s jails. Here is a sample message.
With less than a week left in August, it’s past time to acknowledge Black August.
I remember signing a petition to free Mumia when I was in college. He’s still in prison. There is a new generation of Black activists serving time in US prisons because the local police and federal law enforcement work together to suppress social movements for peace and justice.
Sign the petition to the President and Congress to protect those who protest in defense of Black lives.
Thank you for staying with me through this tough news cycle.
with love,
L