After the horrors they lived because of the war

The youth of Afghanistan are trying to chart a future for lasting peace in their country

  • Afghan youth aspire to a peaceful life.

    From the source

  • The founder of the "National Youth Consensus for Peace" program, Yahya Gani, participates in a United Nations conference held in Afghanistan.

    From the source

  • Safia is terrified after she witnesses the execution of a man on the side of the road.

    From the source

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In her quiet kitchen in Chicago, Safia, an Afghani, who turned 18 in September, recounts how she saw a gunman cut off the head of a helpless man.

"It was the ugliest moment in my life when I saw a person being killed in front of me, and I cannot help him," she says. "And it is more difficult than that to read in his eyes that he lost hope of surviving his life."

It happened in front of her last summer in Afghanistan.

Although it is still a new event on her mind, she remembers it as the fear that children experience when they are exposed to routine violence or the loss of parents.

The man was traveling with her in a group of minibuses heading to Bamiyan.

When the buses approached one of the bends, they saw a Taliban checkpoint, and the buses stopped for inspection.

One of the passengers said that "the Taliban" was searching for a man who worked in the Afghan army, and had received information that he was on a bus, as well as details about his appearance and clothes.

While (Safia) was waiting inside her minibus, she was able to see a man being pulled from another car by a Taliban member, who ordered him to stand on the side of the road, then beheaded in full view.

"I will never be able to forget what I saw," she says, adding, "Now I am afraid of the militants more than my fear of death."

(Safia) later secured a scholarship at Woodlands Academy in Chicago, and is now in the final stage of the Fulbright Scholarship Program.

Frustration with the slow pace of peace negotiations

Children and youth make up more than two-thirds of Afghanistan's population and are disproportionately affected by violence.

Afghanistan ranks second after the African continent in terms of an increase in the number of the youngest age groups in the world, with 48% of Afghans under the age of 15, and about 75% of the population under the age of 29 years.

Data collected by the Afghan government estimate that more than 12,500 children (of 18 years of age or younger) were killed or injured in the violence between 2015 and 2018, while 274 children were recruited into combat roles or "combat support."

Other research revealed that a third of children in Afghanistan experienced psychological distress linked to the loss of a family member due to risk or injury from terrorist attacks in schools.

Frustrated by the violence and the slow progress of peace talks between the government and the Taliban, young people in Afghanistan are starting to take peace matters into their own hands.

"National Youth Consensus"

The National Youth Consensus for Peace, launched in June by Yahya Qani, 26, is one of the growing movements promoting peace across Afghanistan.

The organization includes 244 groups, and more than 2,000 young people from 34 provinces across the country, working to secure a stake for them in peace talks and end conflict.

Yahya began his peacebuilding career in 2014, first working as a volunteer with a movement working to empower youth and women.

He went on to establish the model of the United Nations General Assembly in Kabul, then became president of the United Nations Union in Afghanistan, before establishing the "National Youth Consensus for Peace", which, he says, is a true equality movement, because it does not have a single leader.

Moreover, the members of this organization are all volunteers, who pay out of their own money to build peace.

Yahya says the youth are an essential component of the peace process in Afghanistan because they will inherit any peace agreement reached.

As such, he believes that their voices are an essential part of the peace process, which should be heard.

He asserts that “there is no strategy from our government or the international community to protect youth, specifically peacebuilders from youth and community leaders,” adding: “About 10,000 people are affected by attacks by militants every year, and of these 8,000 young people, including the (Taliban) youth, are injured. Or they were killed by (Taliban) and Afghan security forces' fire. ”

Yahya sees a laxity in the participation of young people between the ages of 18 and 35 in the country, who, according to him, make up about 90 percent of the Afghan security forces, and also a laxity in the government's willingness to consider their vision of a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan.

He says, "If young people are fighting for peace, then why is there no place for us to talk and exchange views about peace?"

Dissatisfied with the government's proposals for peace, he created the "National Youth Consensus for Peace" program, which he launched in the capital, Kabul, on August 12, in conjunction with United Nations International Youth Day.

The program document reflects the negatives of the current peace process - which it claims is not neutral - and makes recommendations for a lasting peace in Afghanistan.

The program document also urges the government to recognize that youth participation in the peace process, at all levels, is a fundamental and inherent right that must be granted to youth.

In addition to the demands directed at the current government, the program document calls for "the Taliban" to adhere to Chapter Two of Afghanistan's constitution, which includes a list of rights and freedoms that Afghan citizens are entitled to enjoy.

These rights include freedom from discrimination and persecution, freedom of expression, gender equality, and the right of peoples to elect their government.

The program document is optimistic and innovative, yet cautious, and crafted by a group aware of the fragile nature of peace in Afghanistan.

The document called on the countries of the world to act as guarantors of the peace talks, and to continue providing support and protection to the Afghan people after reaching an agreement.

Missing neutrality

Although she agrees with (Yahya) and (Safia), Brishna feels that Afghanistan needs to secure a peaceful future.

She believes that the negotiations between the Taliban and the government are more about political control than achieving lasting peace.

"The (Taliban) began the war in the name of religion, but this is a political war and has nothing to do with Islam," she says. "Peace will never be achieved if the fighting continues."

Aside from concerns about a power struggle between the government and the "Taliban", the "National Youth Consensus for Peace" program has made young people feel that the government may not be interested in having a real dialogue with Afghan youth.

"Our goal in the national consensus is for there to be a person independent of the government and (the Taliban) in the peace talks, but I don't think the government is interested in this goal," says Brishna. "Through the meetings we had with government officials, we did not feel any support in this direction." .

However, the government's position on engaging youth and peace talks contradicts the criticisms leveled by members of the "National Youth Consensus for Peace" program. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani spoke about the role of youth in peace talks and emphasized the need to include youth because the peace agreement will have an impact. Long term on their future.

In line with this policy, the Ghani government selected two young men to represent the youth, Khaled Nour and Batur Dostum, who are now part of the Doha negotiation team.

However, the members of the program express concern about the selection of Khalid and Batur because, they believe, are the sons of prominent warlords who occupy high positions.

Yahya says that the youth representatives in the negotiation team in Doha are not really representatives of youth, but rather political parties because they are the sons of warlords, they have not lived in Afghanistan before, and they do not know what is happening on the ground and do not know what they will discuss in these meetings, because they are not Contact the youth of Afghanistan.

The plight of Malala's Afghan

Prishna Musazi (31 years old), she became known as "Malala Afghanistan", similar to the Pakistani feminist activist Malala Yousafzai, after the "Taliban" shot her three times in 2016, but she remained alive, and she graduated with honors from the American University in Kabul. She is a member of the "National Youth Consensus for Peace" program.

Brishna was at the mosque for evening prayers with her friend, when they heard gunshots and an explosion followed.

Prishna, who has polio in her right leg, could not run and decided to pass through a building close to several floors, believing it would be safer than crossing the open garden and the outside areas of the mosque.

As she approached the entrance to the building, she noticed broken glass on the floor.

Because the attack did not leave her time to put on her shoes again after prayer, she had no choice but to walk through the glass with her bare feet.

When I entered the building, I found several girls hiding inside, all of whom performed the prayers in the mosque.

One girl was trying to help another get into a room through a high, partially broken window.

During the attempt, the window frame suddenly collapsed, and the girl fell down and injured the other below, her nose and cheek.

To help her, Brishna took a handkerchief from her bag to present to the girl when she heard the sound of someone behind her, and she turned to see a man carrying a pistol and dressed as a security guard.

I sighed, but the man shot her. Taliban fighters dressed as security guards that evening, so that they would not be discovered by local law enforcement.

The bullet hit her left leg.

But when she fell to the ground, she pretended to be dead, except that the gunman shot her again, and the second shot hit her left foot.

The girls ran out of the room, while our feathers lay motionless on the ground, and did not dare to scream or move for fear that the gunman would shoot her in the head to end her life, but he left the place quickly.

As night fell, she saw her phone flashing, her family members were calling her, and she had switched her phone to silent mode in the mosque, but she forgot to turn on the sound when she got out of the mosque, which saved her later when she thought about saving her life.

Then she heard a whisper in the corridor, and shots rang out over her head, and it flew around the room when the "Taliban" and the Afghan police exchanged fire.

And I thought at that moment that its end was near.

A third bullet hit her left leg, but the barrage of bullets subsided and eventually stopped.

She picked up her phone and sent a text message to her parents, and they told her that the police would come to the place to take her. When she approached the ambulance that was waiting for her outside, the forces fell on the policeman’s shoulder, and she felt pain when her broken leg hit his back, but he asked her to calm down because «Taliban» They are stalking them.

Brishna's ordeal lasted for six hours, inflicting losses not only on her body, but also on her mental health, and for several months after the attack she was in fear.

The National Youth Consensus for Peace is one of the growing movements that began to promote peace throughout Afghanistan, to secure its share in the peace talks, and to end the conflict.

The National Youth Consensus for Peace program document is optimistic and innovative, yet cautious, drafted by a group familiar with the fragile nature of peace in Afghanistan.

In addressing the international community, the document called on the countries of the world to act as a guarantor for the peace talks, and to continue providing support and protection to the Afghan people after reaching an agreement.

Brishna Musazzi nearly lost her life after being shot multiple times in her feet.

From the source

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