Angelina Jolie Champions Afghan Women a Year After Taliban Takeover: 'This Does Not End Here'
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Jon Kopaloff/WireImage Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is speaking up for the women of Afghanistan.
One year after the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the Taliban's takeover of the country, the Academy Award winner, 47, penned an op-ed for TIME about the horrors that Afghan women continue to face under the oppressive regime.
She recalled meeting a young refugee living in Rome who was "months from qualifying as a doctor" before the Afghan government was overthrown, and whose sisters were also deprived of their education.
"Overnight, they and 14 million other Afghan women and girls lost their right to go to high school or university, their right to work, and their freedom of movement," Jolie wrote.
Jolie called the progress of Afghan women over the past two decades "a bright light during years of continuing violence and suffering for the people of Afghanistan," noting that those advances have "been overturned with unimaginable speed."
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"The daughters of Afghanistan are extraordinary for their strength, resilience, and resourcefulness," she added.
The Eternals star detailed the treatment of Afghan women, including public beatings, political imprisonment, kidnapping and forced marriages to Taliban leaders
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"Yet despite the dangers, the greatest resistance to the reversal of women's rights in Afghanistan has not come from foreign powers, but from Afghan women themselves, who have taken to the streets," Jolie wrote.
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Jolie argued that it was "the worst possible step" for the U.S. and its allies to withdraw from Afghanistan.
"There have been different chapters in Afghanistan's history and many dark moments. This is undoubtedly one of them. But I'm sure that this isn't the final chapter. The dream of a pluralistic, open Afghanistan built on the equal efforts and free voices of all its people may seem to be — and be in reality — a distant hope. But I know it's possible. This does not end here," Jolie concluded.
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By the end of Aug. 2020, the U.S. helped 122,000 people, including 5,400 Americans, evacuate Afghanistan amid the Taliban's takeover in what was described as "the largest airlift" in U.S. military history.
An estimated 80,000 Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war remained stuck in the country.
