Speech by Said Wase Sayedi at a demonstration in Berlin on February 26th, 2022

My name is Said Wase Sayedi, and I have been an activist for women and girls in Afghanistan for almost 15 years. For many years I worked with a committed team for the rights of girls and women and gave them a voice so that they could stand up for their rights. But when the Taliban took control of the country, everything we had fought for years disappeared in one fell swoop. The conditions for women have deteriorated greatly since the takeover. Women and girls are not allowed to achieve higher education, they were robbed of their fundamental rights and they are no longer treated equally in society. It was dangerous for women's rights activists and activists, and thousands were forced to flee from the country, including me. I cannot live under such a durable dictatorial regime that publicly hangs up its opponents and tortures women just because they stand up for their basic human rights.

I would like to thank the Kabul Luftbrücke, my colleague of Terre Des Hommes and all the people who have been in the hands of the Taliban since August 15, when our beloved country fell for the evacuations. However, we must not forget that, in addition to the evacuated, hundreds and thousands of other activists in Afghanistan are in great danger and were held helpless.

Since the Taliban took over the power, a number of activists from civil society and women's rights activists have been violently driven out of their houses for no apparent reason, and nobody knows how these activists are being recorded, whether they are still living or are already dead. Her only crime was to stand on the street and to request their fundamental rights "eating, work and freedom".

In addition, journalists and media activists are flogged and threatened in a medieval way so that they no longer write or critically write against the dictatorship regime. Artists and musicians who stand in the heart of the people were publicly beaten up and their musical instruments were broken in front of the public and they were forced to announce. 

Unfortunately, the Taliban has been checking the apartments of activists randomly for a few days now. I am worried about my colleagues who are still in Afghanistan and stay helpless. I hope that nobody was killed, detained or tortured because they have occurred for their rights. If the Taliban find that the activists have already been evacuated abroad, they threaten their family members to increase the pressure and silence their voice. You also urgently need help.

Therefore, as a friend of the women's rights activists, we are calling for human rights activists, journalists, media, social and cultural activists to not forget the German government. The life of these people and their relatives is in great danger. You have the same right to be supported and evacuated as I do, even if you have not worked for German organizations.