On Friday, Oscar winning star Angelina Jolie posted for the first time on Instagram. She shared a letter that she had received from a teenage Afghani girl. She captioned her post saying that the people of Afghanistan were currently losing their ability to communicate on social media and that they were also losing freedom of expression. She got a million followers very quickly and her first post got 25,000 within an hour of posting.
The Maleficent star said that she had joined Instagram to share stories of the Afghans as well of people all over the world who were fighting for basic rights. The 46-year-old, fiercely private actress, who has not been on social media before, was moved by the plight of the young teenager and joined social media to spread such stories by using social media platforms.
The young girl’s name had been redacted for fear of retaliation. She said that she was afraid that the Taliban would not allow her to go to school and said that they were “all imprisoned again.” When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan almost two decades ago, they had taken away basic of rights of women including education.
Jolie, who had been to Afghanistan in a humanitarian mission a few weeks before 9/11, had previously met refugees who were escaping the Taliban. Once again, there are hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees who wish to leave but have few sanctuaries and Jolie appealed to the global, regional and local powers to “provide urgent humanitarian aid and protect refugees and civilians.”
The Eternals actress said that it was sickening to watch Afghans being displaced, once again, as “fear and uncertainty” gripped Afghanistan. She also said that it was almost impossible to understand that it was a failure after so much of time, money, blood had been shed and lives had been lost to the Afghan cause.
The Academy Award actress ended her post saying that she would not turn away, like others who were committed and would continue to look for ways to help and she told her followers that she hoped that they would join her in her quest.
Image Gage Skidmore
