Who is Protesting For Afghan Women?

Young people across the West have taken up the mantle against “Israeli occupation” to fight for the rights of Palestinian people, or so they say. While I love the energy and passion of our youth, I wonder where that passion was when the Iranian people cried for international assistance for their plight. Or where were the rallies for the Afghan women left to the whims of the Taliban? Or how about the Uyghurs in China? Or child miners in Africa? Or victims of human trafficking? Or even the plight of Palestinians under the Assad regime in Syria?

Why does the fight of the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank rouse so much enthusiasm while other groups are practically ignored? Every innocent life matters, whether Palestinian or not. Every child who falls victim to the decisions made by the adults around them deserves justice. Every woman robbed of an education or repeatedly raped in a trafficking scheme deserves freedom.

But while I was reeling with grief for the women killed and tortured by the Iranian regime, I didn’t see swarms of protesters on their behalf in college universities. When I was crying with a dear Afghan friend whose family was stranded in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal, I didn’t see massive protests against the Taliban’s repression of women. Girls, who had previously gotten the opportunity to go to school, were thrown back into their…