Afghanistan How to Partner with Empower the New Generation

[Music]

it wasn’t easy to think about what to

say today

it’s been really hard

to find words or even understand

my feelings since the fall of

afghanistan to the taliban

i’m going to try my best

to not be political as that’s one of the

ted guidelines but it’s it’s very

challenging because i was born into a

political body

being an afghan-american woman

i attended my first protest in my

mother’s womb just after the soviet

invasion of afghanistan

so today

i speak with deep loyalty and love for

my people for the people of afghanistan

if i had been born in afghanistan i

could likely be stuck in the country

right now

or for example right now there are a

group of refugees afghan refugees in

indonesia who have

thrown their mouths shut in a hunger

strike because they have been stuck for

several years and

and this is their protest so i want to

honor my people today

in 2012 i gave my last tedx talk in

kabul it was the inaugural tedx kabul

and i remember the feeling in the room

it was

full of

hope

collaboration and inspiration

i remember looking out at the audience

everybody had these headsets on and and

there were three different channels

an english channel a dari channel and a

pashto channel

i looked out at the crowd and i saw this

generation

that i realized were the children i

visited in schools 10 years prior and

now they had come of age

and i felt

a very big responsibility as i spoke

before these this generation

i spoke

about being born

in los angeles just after the soviet

invasion of

afghanistan my father’s family fled the

country 21 days before i was born

as refugees and moved into our home

my mom was afghan and sicilian born in

new jersey today is her birthday she

passed a year and a half ago

i told the story of how my parents met

in kabul in the 60s

my mom went back to discover her

father’s roots

and she wanted to meet the nomadic

people the coochies and my father was

her translator for the day because they

spoke pashto and she spoke dari

i told the story of my parents being

dedicated activists all my life and how

afghanistan was the conversation at

every dinner table i never thought in my

lifetime i’d ever get to go back there

was always war

and then there was taliban rule

when 9 11

and the u.s occupation of afghanistan

began the taliban fell and my parents

moved back to the country to be part of

a new chapter

i made my first trip in october of 2002

and i talked about how

that trip changed my life forever

afghanistan became the deepest love of

my heart my inspiration for all of my

art and activism

i ended my talk by singing a song called

the east about a little boy who grows up

to become a talib and regrets it

i met

many incredible young afghans who are so

vital to their country

like for example my friends

pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist

masood hosseini

afghanistan’s first female graffiti

artist shamsia hassani

activists like sahar fatrat

the bands

district unknown and kabul dreams we

played shows together we worked on peace

campaigns together and i watched for

several years as this generation

continued to outdo themselves

it went from a few different bands to

a full spectrum of different genres of

music

they were playing classical instruments

of east and west it went from a few

entrepreneurs to a flourishing economy

of young entrepreneurs

when i first made my my first trip in

2002 there was barely any electricity we

had to use dial-up internet now the

entire country had smartphones

in 2001 there were zero girls in school

because of the taliban

now there were 3.5 million girls in

school

by 2015 my dear friend fresh deferral

founded afghanistan’s first coding

school for girls called code to inspire

the country was

unrecognizable because of this

tremendous generation of young afghans

that had rose up

literally from the ashes of war and

debris like a phoenix

they rebuilt their nation in

record time and somehow the world didn’t

know about them

there were

terrorist attacks the room

at estaclaw school where we gave our

tedx talks was bombed a few years later

someone was killed several were injured

universities were bombed schools

businesses

not to mention drone strikes

but i still had so much faith i did not

think the country could go backward

because of this generation

when the peace talks began in september

of 2020

i felt pretty concerned i didn’t

understand how a negotiation would stop

the taliban when they were continuously

acting out in violent ways

when the withdrawal was announced i held

my breath and

prayed on august 15 2021

our worst nightmare happened and

afghanistan fell to the taliban

again

i started getting a flood of dms from

young afghans desperate to get out of

the country

one that stands out to me today is from

a young government

worker

he reminded me that we met at tedx kabul

in

2012. he was one of the young people in

the crowd that i met that day and he

said to me ariana

i’m waiting for my turn to be killed

there is no way to escape

another young afghan woman called me

crying and she said ariana i can’t sleep

i can’t eat i’m afraid for my life i’m

afraid for my children

i calmed both of them down as best i

could while i

sat in shock

and motivated to do whatever i could

with my voice and my access

all of the diaspora around the world

have been working around the clock to

try to evacuate afghans we have photos

passport photos of children on our

phones

we don’t know if we can get them out or

not we try our best but

the taliban banned girls from secondary

school today is the 79th day that afghan

girls are banned from secondary school

women have been banned from working

journalists are being beaten and flogged

there have been public hangings and

stonings

what is going to be the fate of my

beautiful people and our thousands of

years of history

i hesitate to offer any kind of solution

today

because what has happened is so horrific

and what is happening is such a betrayal

i can’t make it okay

but i want afghanistan to come out of

this dark time as quickly as possible

so i want to offer an idea

if a few men sat at small tables in

small rooms and negotiated away a

country with very little regard for

millions of afghan lives

then what if the billions of global

citizens around the world

come together

and we uplift

amplify and empower

this generation

of young afghans that i have spoken to

you about those that are still in the

country and those who have recently fled

with them in the lead

we can work with them we can partner

with them in revolutionized and peaceful

ways

all of you guys have different gifts out

there gifts i can’t even think of maybe

you have an idea i don’t even have

but through art beauty psychology

wellness practices science

finance technology

we can support this generation

we can partner with them

and maybe this moment that is seemingly

a failure and a breakdown can become a

breakthrough

i believe that we can weave a new dream

that is peaceful

free united inclusive

maybe afghanistan is where we transcend

borders and broken systems and we come

together as a planet

together

and protect the human rights and freedom

of one another

i believe in this generation

i believe in all of you

and i believe in me and i believe that

if we come together with these

intentions a miracle can emerge for

afghanistan

thank you

[Applause]

you