Kolkata: Spare a thought today which is the International Daughters Day. Amid the celebrations with your girl, could it be feasible to dedicate this day to those innocent souls in the embattled Afghanistan who are staring down the barrel as the Taliban strengthen their clout on their soil?
The Afghan girls are in a state of shock and disarray. A phase of uncertainty unfurls as they are oblivious to what destiny has in store for them.
Will the bigots allow them to return to school? Would their mothers and sisters be given a space to breathe free? No, our Afghan daughters are clueless.
As the Taliban rulers wrestle with one another to stamp their authority on Afghanistan, Afghan girls find themselves submerged in a cobweb which leaves them hapless.
The tyrannical Taliban regime is full of hollow promises – contradictions are conspicuous at every step. Afghan mothers and daughters seek to exercise their basic rights but any tinge of protest is quashed. Gifted women are fleeing the country in search of peace and solace – they are the lucky ones leaving behind thousands thrown at the mercy of cruelty. They have nowhere to go but why should they? It is their native place and they have the right to bask in its odour. But freedom doesn’t beckon them.
A word of grievance incurs the wrath of their rulers. They live on the edge of guns as the rest of the world expresses solidarity on various global platforms that elevates their stature but the Afghan daughter’s sufferings know no bounds. Crisis spirals out of control but world leaders engage in mere obsolete rhetorics.
For us writers, it’s not the time for displaying our prowess over words that prods us to write on and on. Our readers marvel at our literary brilliance and some of us are rewarded, but does that suffice? A five-year-old girl in Kandahar is indifferent to the flowery usage of concern and empathy which is of no relevance to her. She demands action that bears fruit. Can we live up to their expectations?
We are helpless. But the least we can do is pray for those Nadias, Nazneens, Fatimas and others who are entitled to a life full of bliss. So, as we search for ways to make our daughters’ day, dedicate each and every moment to their deprived counterparts in the neighborhood.
Peace eludes them as they survive on the cusp of atrocities. Let’s pray and pray from the bottom of our heart. Let good sense prevail in those bearded men who pride themselves in self-conceived religious beliefs to cater to their skulduggery.
