My Journey with Afghans in Kabul without leaving my couch in NYC
I get hundreds of messages each week about injustice and suffering around the world - tv, radio, texts, email, voicemail, snailmail – for good causes and candidates. All religions teach compassion for the most vulnerable but when do we say enough?! And when do we wonder, “Can I do at least more than nothing?”
I almost didn’t open the stranger’s Linkedin message that changed my life his Middle Eastern name, for those of us who survived 9/11 attacks, could be scary. His Profile seemed safe so I started reading:
“Please read this then take one minute to click and forward my alert to global rights organizations. If you message me back and I do not reply within a week then kindly avoid sending me any email or call because I may be tortured or killed by the Taliban.”
He then gave specifics confirming August 2021 headlines I was seeing:
“Afghan Government Collapses…Taliban Rule Returns…American Troops Evacuate…Afghans Hang On Wings of Planes-Fall to Death…Taliban To Re-enact Laws to Repress Women…ISIS Suicide Bomber Kills US Troops, Others…Evacuations Leaves Thousands Behind”
I start to respond but my New Yorker brain stopps me: ‘He talks a good game, but watch out. Could be a scam to get money from the gullible… Or worse. What if he’s a sleeper hoping to make nice with some do-gooder to get to US? And like the hijackers, BOOM!’
But he’s not asking for help for himself – just wants global rights to help pro-democracy Afghans who believed our promise: help the US and Coalition countries drive the 9/11 al Qaeda plotters out of their hideouts in Afghanistan’s mountain cave then we’ll help you build rule by elected leaders not by tyrants. That shut up my red alert brain.
I replied, saying I would forward his call for help to all rights groups on Linkedin and asked how I could help him. He opened online Linkedin meetings. I met a lovely young couple in danger of assassination because they taught women’s history and rights, managed pro-democracy candidates, even coached Mulahs to speak in public about value of equal rights in Islam. For 1½ years, I wrote support letters without leaving my couch – for visas, to many rights organizations and elected US leaders (only Senator Schumer’s staff opened a case and tried to help), to any country from Albania to Zambia willing to accept Afghan refugees (filling up with desperate Ukrainians), even unexpected email conversations with a US general who listened, gave advice and may have engineered policy changes that got many Afghans to safety in America. Early 2023, my new family arrives in US, thanking me profusely, but their gift to me was the joy of reaching across oceans, continents and cultures to connect with our shared humanity - only two of the millions of people in despair around the world. But at least more than nothing!