Female martial artists from Afghanistan have called on Canada’s Prime Minister and the President of France to save their lives in a desperate bid for support.
The twenty-five athletes who are either living in Afghanistan, or as refugees in Pakistan and Iran wrote an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron titled “Help so that we have the right to life, education and the right to live.”
In the letter, they say they have been born into a country where being a woman is “disgraceful and considered the second-class gender.”
The letter, published on Monday, says that the mainstream media only reflects a very small part of the truth of what Afghan women face. It says that most of what women experience is suppressed by the extremist group and by media in various ways, and they fear what will happen to them after the letter is published in the media.
The athletes say that justice and human rights have no meaning to the Taliban, and the group only know the terms “force and oppression”.
The female athletes have appealed to Mr Trudeau as a husband and father. “You also have a wife, Sophie Gregoire, she is also a woman. You have daughters and a mother, and the daughters and women of Canada are like your mother and daughters. You also work and strive for all of them,” the letter says.
“Don’t forget us from your fatherly kindness and love. We also want to try to live a human life with you like your mothers and sisters. As a powerful, young, and philanthropic leader, we implore you to help the women and girls of this land. We are waiting for your answer until the last moment.”
They also wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, “You have a wife, Brigitte Marie, you have a daughter, without a doubt, all the daughters of the French nation are like your daughters, all the mothers of France are like your mother. We also expect a kind father, a kind brother from you. We implore you to listen to our voices, as you listen to the voices of your mothers and sisters in France.”
The Taliban have banned women and girls from sports and have violently suppressed women’s demonstrations calling for their rights by detaining and abusing a number of activists and protesting women.
