Haitham al-Haddad – What is happening in Afghanistan – I visited & found out
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the controversy surrounding the treatment of women and men in Afghanistan, including the involvement of Western tourists and a humanitarian aid program. The challenges faced by people criticizing the current government and the importance of learning about the country and its history. The speakers also discuss the availability of education and the challenges faced by the people who criticize the current government. The discussion touches on cultural and political changes, the use of masks, and the importance of not criticizing others before traveling to Afghanistan. The segment also touches on struggles faced by hangry people in their lives, including loss of family members and the lack of social interaction. The speakers encourage attendees to donate to various causes and projects, including activism, activism, and social entrepreneurship.
AI: Summary ©
Oh ALLAH heat is really heartbreaking sorry, we need to stop. Once we talk about women's rights in Afghanistan, we have to put that into this person. You have to accept this. This is their culture. Everyone is praising security, even those who go against them. We visited actually, girls in school. And we saw those young girls is studying in the heat under just the the shade of the tree. Imagine the teachers in that school, they don't have a nice salary. They are doing PCB law. We interviewed the Minister of enjoining, good and forbidding the evil. And I did ask him specifically about this question. They said, if you see a woman that is not wearing hijab, okay, he said, We advised it, I
said, do you force we were shocked all of us. I said, are they these people? Are they the Taliban, or those people ex Mujahideen? They said that we started to have some Western tourists, I said, they said, Yeah, they have around 12,000, Western tourists, I asked him about committing injustice against poor people, and maybe violating the women's rights as they say. And he said that even that that is the first thing to be monitored. In fact, there was an incident, I might share the details of that incident. Instead of just criticizing them, Let us raise our voice that these economic sanctions have to come to an end. When I interviewed some of the young people I see in their eyes
that panel up as if they are saying why you don't consider us as normal human being as if they say enough is enough. We have been traumatized by everyday bombing, killing invasion of people, foreigners want to enforce their values upon you. He said the French arrest both of my children, and they killed both of them in front of my eyes. And you hear really very traumatizing history. Despite that. Well, like it was shocking.
The people word is mining. If you can't help them, just leave them alone. However, I'm not expecting the from the Muslim community to leave them alone. But I said
you know,
one of them could be my wife could be your wife. You know, and these children could be my children could be your children. And Isaiah Allah, Ya Allah, Allah.
So now when it comes to when it comes to La Rahmatullah capital, so my salah, we've seen that you're on a trip on official trip to Afghanistan. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah. How the Hammond hamdulillah salat wa salam ala Rasulillah. This is delegation comprises a number of senior UK scholar
aiming to
find facts about what is happening in Afghanistan regarding numerous issues regarding in particular security of the country, regarding economy, also regarding drug control, and various other issues. We wanted to meet the the people, we want also to deliver some humanitarian aid. And we also we also visited some humanitarian project, various actually humanitarian humanitarian project. And then Hamdulillah. Also, we managed to meet some of the officials
including the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
His name is Ahmed Han,
mata ki. Also we managed to meet the Minister of Justice the Minister of hon model Finder here and in monka, in joining good and forbidding the evil. We met number of authorities in different levels, but these are the main authorities that we met. Also today Alhamdulillah we had a program actually interview
in the national Afghan TV called medi and we had the pleasure also to me
Meet the director of the, the channel. Medulla. Yeah, so Alhamdulillah that trip, I believe it was very successful, very fruitful Alhamdulillah and a lot to be learned a lot to be said as well.
Mashallah, Mashallah.
One of the things that there's been lots of coverage of, especially in the Western media is the Taliban or the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the government's banning of women or girls from school from formal education.
This is this is you know, many people have been attacking them for this and even some Muslim countries and friendly Muslim nations have spoken out about this. Is this something that you raised with the people with the do something that the scholars that have been visiting raise and what was the government response to this? Yeah, actually, we have spoken of course, we do not have an official position, okay, we are a group of senior Muslim scholars that all so we are not representing any country, we are not representing any UN body. So, we cannot raise it as a as a questioning. Okay, we can raise it as a matter of understanding as a matter of
brotherly discussion. And
so, this is one thing to be noted. But to be honest with you, when people, I think those people who are criticizing them, they should come to Afghanistan and see the reality of the country, I'm really shocked that people are just focusing on this issue and they are not focusing on number of other social economical issues in Afghanistan.
The people who are posing this criticism, I think they are living in comfortable situations. And that's why it is easy for them to criticize people 1000s of miles away from them,
different culture of course, different religion, different value set values, etc. When we criticize and to be honest with you, the more I learn about the country here, the more I say to myself, I should not
I should not criticize, okay, I should not also praise before I dig more and more, okay. Or let me put it like this, I should have
humble criticism, humble praise.
In the meantime, because things are more sophisticated than a person can grasp within just eight days of visit, but he can give overall impression. And just now I had I forgot the name of they have a natural ice cream dish made from milk is a nice one, but it has a lot of sugar anyway. So.
So, we, they invited me and I was so happy, because I want to mix more with different types of people. And I met two young people who just joined the University one of them is studying English and one of them is studying it and I did ask them about the situation now and the situation before Okay, two years ago, when the previous government was there, and yeah, so, we had the discussion, I want to know more. Also, the more you listen to the more you investigate, the more you understand. So, I call upon all my brothers and sisters upon everyone, government authorities, etc. Not to be simplistic in their approach, unless they have an agenda just to smear some people to attack some
people then of course, they can use any execuse and they just can throw allegations. Yeah. This is my real advice regarding
this regarding any country, especially regarding any Muslim country, and I would like to say to my brothers and sisters please do not listen to unfortunately the
the the Islamophobic
there Islamophobic media. Yeah. Unfortunately it is mainly
broadcasting in the or from the West.
So,
okay, our findings, okay, let me tell you the findings. And we have reconfirmed this with a number of authorities with a number of people. Okay.
They said that from year one, up to year six, education is available for all. Yeah, boys and girls. And they say that and we have confirmed okay with the number of people as I have told you, and with the people that I just met independent, young people, yeah.
So from year one to year six is available for everyone. In fact,
many people have said that, during this current government, that is, that has been there for just two years, less than two years, maybe in a few days, they will have the second year completed, of their, of them being empowered. So
from year one to year six, it is available for everyone. And in fact, they have established schools in so many provinces, where before there were no education for boys and girls, there were no formal schooling system. Afghanistan is a very big country, okay, just less than or maybe around 700,000 kilometers, very mountains, we travel Okay, around cabin Subhanallah mountains, Rocky,
high mountains, and you can say subhanallah How is Yanni anyway, who I will talk about this later, who I was about, I always say to myself, when I see these mountains, I said, Who is that is stupid, who is Earth, such a stupid country or individual who wants to invade this country is impossible, impossible. Anyway, the point is that it is a huge country, there are so many villages, it is agricultural country,
it is undeveloped country, it has been
in war, or different wars for almost 40 plus years. Some people say even before that there were a number of wars. So there was there is no stability. And there are 34 prevents it, the current government managed to,
to establish primary education almost in all these provinces. And we have seen some remote areas just in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. And we have seen young people, younger children, just walking safely in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the desert, or in the Mountain Boys and girls going to their schools,
or coming back from their schools. So this is one thing now, after year six, their education will split into two types. There are formal and I like your question where you said formal,
formal education. So the formal education will continue for boys. For the girls, they have different avenues of education, mainly, the madrasa system and other private institutions in those madrasa systems and these private institutions girls
study, mainly Islamic subjects, and it depends on the availability of teachers.
Availability of qualified teachers to teach them different subjects. So
they have access to those subjects.
The when we asked them, so why did you stop those girls from studying alongside studying in those schools? They said that we don't believe in the current schooling system. We have so many reservations about it. Okay, especially for our girls. That's why we are looking we suspend it for girls until we come up with an alternative that meets our criteria to meet our values and of course, Islamic principles.
So this is okay. Now if we move forward
To the university education to the higher education.
They have a lot of reservation on the current university system or higher education system. And I interviewed someone who left the government. Okay, actually, I was so keen to interview him to hear his view as well, because I don't want to listen to one view only.
He is a professor, a professor in management, and he resigned just a few few months ago. And he said that,
that he believes that an alternative can be established. He said the, the the the other ministers, they don't believe that. Sorry, they don't have an alternative at the moment. And it happened that in some of the private universities in in Afghanistan, let me just quote, how many private university? How many?
Many state university I don't want to get the number wrongly.
Okay.
Yeah, so
almost, there are almost
Yeah, 4040 State University.
And 150 private universities in Afghanistan is a huge number. So he's dead that day. It was reported or there were reports that the private universities are conducting some concerts that go against Islam. So they were concerned about the the data educational system plus many other things. So this professor, his view was that yes, these are these things are against Islamic values. However, let us continue until we find an alternative. Okay, they didn't believe that they can continue. And they said, Okay, we will suspend it and look for
for an alternative. Okay. We might agree, we might disagree, but I'm just stating the fact that we found as they are. Okay. So this is this is okay, there was an exception. Although when we verified it myself, I wanted to verify this exception. And I have actually different views. Some of the authorities, they said that there was an exception for medical, medical subjects
in order to help girls to
or help the country to have female doctors and female workers in the medical field. Yeah.
I wanted to verify this with some young people.
I heard different, different answers. Some of the young people said, Yes, actually, there was an exception for universities and colleges that teach medical subjects or health related subjects. Some of them they said that no, no, actually.
These institutions were closed. Yeah. So I did not have time to meet the
Minister of Higher Education. Because actually, as I told you, we are not officials. Yeah. And so we cannot impose ourselves, whoever invites us, okay, we just,
we just accepted the invitation. Yeah. And we take that opportunity to investigate whatever we can investigate or discuss, actually, we have no power to investigate, but to discuss whatever we want to discuss. So this, this is the reality. Yeah, I'm stating it. I'm not saying I am with them. I'm not saying on my against them. All. What I'm saying is that we have to be careful before we criticize people for any any decision that they have taken. We have to be really careful, not over simplistic. And the more I hear about this criticism, and I look at the country, this situation of the country, one of the poorest countries in the world,
one of the undeveloped countries, in fact the young people that are
Had he, one of them said to me here, you know, we are 100 years ago of countries like Britain or maybe the West. Yeah, this is how he put it 100 years ago. No, maybe this is an exaggeration. But believe me when you visit,
visit villages, and the people say that just maybe a year ago, we did not have electricity. We don't know that electricity, something called electricity. Imagine that. Yeah. And imagine we have visited the school inshallah report by the brothers prosper. Afghanistan, will be released in shamba. Soon, and with some pictures, we visited.
Actually, girls school, and we saw those young girls is studying in the heat under just the the shade of the tree. Then we ask them, What about whatever winter? They said in the winter? You don't imagine that? The difficulties? They go through? Yeah. The degree goes to minus 20. Yeah, sometimes minus 25. In those villages in the mountains. I said, How on earth? Yeah, they will manage to study. And he said, some of them do come. Yeah. And we do. We collect some wood. We do whatever we can do in order just to keep them a little bit warm. And that continues sometimes two, three months. Okay. Imagine the teachers in that school. They don't have a nice salary. They are doing a PCB lab. Yep.
They don't get any return for that. That is cool. They don't have any, you know, any power supply. They don't have a lamp. Yeah. Above. They don't have electricity. They don't. The water they have a water well, in the middle of the courtyard. Yeah. And using very basic equipment to get water from that water. Well, yeah. This is the situation. And by the way, this, some brothers said that this village is slightly better than other villages. Because this village is maybe three hours away from Kabul, there are villages that, you know, in the middle of nowhere near a city to that village is maybe six hours drive seven hours, eight hours drive. Yeah. So when people are talking about
women's education in this environment, I feel that the accusations and the criticism is bit unfair and overloaded. Yep. Again, I'm not saying I am with them. I'm not saying I'm against them. As I told you, I interviewed some of the, like this former education minister, he believes that there can be avenues that can be organized in order for the higher education or years after eight.
There can be avenues for last year for those with grades to be taught for both boys and girls.
Why? Why the Islamic guidelines are observed. Yep. This is his view.
Women's rights is one of those things, obviously, you know,
once you're there on the ground, you see the reality changed, perhaps your perceptions have changed. Did you have other similar? Maybe perceptions of Afghanistan that were challenged or changed when you actually on the ground? Yeah, other than women? Yeah. There's so many things, you know, so many things. Okay. Let us talk about women's rights, although I don't like
to follow the Islamophobic agenda. Okay. Women's rights, women's rights, women's rights as and then many of us as Muslims started to believe that Muslims they violate women's rights and we have to defend
our our stances. Yep. And as as a result of this, many of us are suffering from inferiority complex. See, I don't like to feed into that narrative.
However, okay. Women we have seen
I have seen actually one of the TV channels. That was the brother say
They were saying that this channel was totally anti Islamic. Yeah. And there were * there were dancing, etc, all
non Islamic practices can be seen in that in that TV channel. So
the Islamic Emirate
they put a lot that, okay, you can have women on TV, but they have to wear modest clothes. Okay. And they they part of the face, not the entire face have to be covered. In fact, I can share with you later on some of those video clips that I have taken from that channel. Okay.
And there were women, and it seems to be a women program, and they were discussing various issues related to women. Yeah. So this is regarding today we had an interview in the national of gun TV called Mary. So I asked them about women presenting, they said we have women working in the TV channel. And we have four channels, okay, the main channel, the main TV channel and one educational channel in the educational channel, we have
females presenting certain programs, of course, observing what they believe, as the shirt, a hijab. Okay. So this is women in media, which is like, critical issue, actually, my main observation when I landed, okay, when I landed, I saw actually, women working in the immigration. Yeah, maybe there were two. And maybe there were like three men. Yeah.
Women, we saw them. There were women wearing the traditional clothes. Yep. The traditional burqa. The blue one, I'm sure many have seen that. In villages. They are more of course in Kabul, we have seen some of them.
We have there were some women who are wearing maybe hijab, not the best hijab, but they were wearing it and no one is talking to them. Yep. Some girls wearing good. Yes. Many of them were covering their faces, they are using the the what is the mask to cover their faces?
And some of them were not. Yep. We interviewed the Minister of enjoining. Good and forbidding the evil. And I did ask him specifically about this question. And I said, if you see a woman that is not wearing hijab, okay. He said, We advised her, I said, do you force him? He said, No, we advise once, twice, three times, but every time okay, we escalate. And he said we are trying to have an advisory role rather than reinforcement. Okay. Role.
Yeah. So, so this is regarding, regarding women. We have to understand brothers, we have to understand brothers and sisters. You know, the more I travel, the more I see people the more maybe I become mature. Don't take criticize others. Yep. Don't criticize others. Before you live, you experience what they go through yet. Once you come to Afghanistan, you will be living in a different culture, different environment. Even certain things you know, the the sheer welcome is? Yeah.
I wore it in Afghanistan. And I never expected that. I will wear it in my life. Yeah, I just I thought the shieldwall for me looks odd. Yeah. And it is. I didn't like it. And actually, now you're convinced it's as clear superior.
I'm talking. Yeah. Seriously, when I watched it, okay. They should run it on committees. I liked it. I really liked it. It is very practical, very, you know, relaxed and that, especially in summer, I don't know about winter. So my point is, don't criticize others before you go and see and relate the situation. So
So I
I asked the as I told you, I asked him, he said, We don't enforce these laws. But my point is, the Fulani culture is very, very sensitive. When it comes to females. Yep. And, you know, when we went to that school, and then solutions
to when it comes to gender, or gender in interaction or protecting their females, you know, when we visited that village and visited that school, a primary school, they I think there were three classes four classes, actually, and youngest,
the class that have the youngest girls, I think there were maybe six, seven, around that, believe me, when we came, many of those girls are number of those girls. They were turning away, and they don't they wanted to hide their faces. And actually, some of those girls, they took their garments and put it on to cover their faces. Girls at the age of six, yeah, no one enforced them to do that. But this is they grew up like this. The girls who are maybe
maybe 910, many of them. They covered their faces when we came. Yeah.
Of course, girls, above 15 and 16. No way that you can just look at them directly. Yeah, no way. Yeah. So the teachers told us, just be careful, brothers. Be careful. No filming. Okay. Just you need to come from the back. Yeah. And maybe film for on the back. So this is the culture we visited.
What is it? What do you call it?
Vocational centers, to empower or to rehabilitate, I don't know whether they were rehabilitation is the right word.
To actually it is to educate widows, who lost their husbands some basic skills in order to to be independent and work by themselves earn some money to preserve their dignity. Yeah. And, you know, you cannot talk to them as we talk to our females. In the West, you have to accept this, this is their culture. And even, in fact, you know, because my nature, I just crack jokes with everyone. Yeah. And this is my nature. So the brothers told me she please just be careful of some sensitive cultural issues with the with sisters. And yeah, just be careful. So this is with regards, once we talk about women's rights in Afghanistan, we have to put that into this perspective. Yeah, not just
women's rights, women's rights, and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is violating women's rights, etc. And throughout our visit, eight days, we went to many places we haven't seen, you know, we haven't seen, you know, Saudi Arabia, maybe 40 years ago. Sometimes they would just,
you know,
kind of advice to the level of kind of intimidate those who open their shops while after the event. Yep.
This doesn't exist in Afghanistan.
Yeah, doesn't exist. People just close their shops, ethically, some of them they just go to pray, leave them open. It is safe. It is mashallah diabolical law safe. Yeah. And that's it. So the country is running, and you don't see the members of the Islamic Emirate everywhere. Just
what is it intimidating people forcing people, policing people? They have many checkpoints? Yeah, I have to say that they have many checkpoints. And one good thing, you know, I don't want to speak about security because everyone is praising security, even those who go against them. They praise the level of security, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, managed to maintain Yeah, but like my number of people told me that, you know, these checkpoints, they said in the previous regime, yeah, people were not respecting those checks.
points and they will just cross this these checkpoints without stopping and then as a result of this, they will have arguments and the either the police will slap them, you know, slap them, or they will just some of them if they have thought they might even beat the police or slap the police. Okay. It has happened as some people say, they said that during this government, that cannot happen when they say to you stop, okay, then it stopped. Yeah. I myself was traveling from
from, from an area called capsaicin, something like this to Kabul, and it was dark. Okay, you know, they're, they don't have electricity everywhere. So it was really very dark and mountains. And then we came across a checkpoint driver. He didn't see the checkpoint. Yeah. So he kind of crossed the checkpoint number of times. And I said, Oh, no, now these armed men, they will just choose us from the back. Yeah. And actually, nothing has happened. Okay, so the guy I told him Stop, stop, man. Stop. So he stopped. Okay. He spoke to them. They spoke them politely. Why didn't you stop? This is what they told me. He said, I haven't seen you. I didn't see you. And then Okay. Thank you. Thank
you. I think in one of the checkpoints, they asked him whether he has gone or weapons. Okay. And yeah, I think and that's it. Okay. That's it, which is really wonderful.
And when he said no, he said, they said, why not? No, no, no. I think most of the people here. Yeah.
I asked them actually, about this point, you know, I said, Our people are, yeah. They said, during the previous governments, many people have arms. But when the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan came, they banned this except from the authorities. Or people have what is it? Official documents? Yeah, to carry weapons. Yeah, and you know, some of the Mujahideen or ex Mujahideen? It is in their culture? Yeah.
Even the people of villages, we visited some villages, as they told you, and
I want to pray in like, a very basic mosque. And some people entered with their weapons. Yeah. I said, Oh, no, this we don't see these weapons in, in the UK. Yeah. But people said, yeah, it is their culture here in The Villages. Because this was their,
the way they they live shift yet. So they these are cultural things that we need to
be aware on, when we speak about any country.
That duckula handshake, you know, when the Taliban came to power few years ago, now, almost, you know, you wrote some articles in Psalm 21. See, talking about some of the macro issues when it comes to implementing Sharia so call implementing Sharia on a,
in a country, right or in, in the public domain, and, and so forth, and some misconceptions about then some advice. Did you Did you speak to any senior officials? And what was your advice? You know, when it comes to, you know, the Sharia on? Yeah, you know, we'll talk about the implementation of Sharia. But one thing that really amazed us all the we were shocked all of us, that the whether the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of enjoining, the good and forbidding the evil, the Minister of Justice, the chief, the chief, just actually, we spoke to him.
The Chief Judge, sorry, he spoke to him as well. All of them, we will and others. Yeah.
All of them speak in a very tough tone. Yeah. It to the level that I said, are they these people? Are they the Taliban? Yeah. Are those people ex Mujahideen? Yeah.
It was really shocking for us, all of us, all of us. So
and, you know, I, I spoke because it's one of the one of the one of the misconceptions maybe one of the stereotypes is you know,
implementing Sharia means, you know, the punishments or something scary that Islamophobia
by the way, but yeah, what was your, by the way? You are the, by the way, some of the people who work in different departments in, in the government, they said that we started to have some Western tourists.
Yeah, I said what? They said, Yeah, yeah, we started. It's very, he said, according to our statistics this year, yeah. Was it? Yeah, this year so far, they have around 12,000, Western
tourists, which is really amazing. Yeah. Which is really amazing. So, back to the point,
when we interviewed the Minister of Justice, and even the Minister of enjoying the good and forbidding the evil, they were talking about the gradual implementation of Sharia and Sharia is not about as people, you know, the stereotype. Sharia is beating up people, punishments, redo the cutting, whatever. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. No. And,
you know, we asked him specific questions about the implementation of certain things. And he said,
There is a due process and certain punishments have not yet been applied. In the Imara. Okay. In, okay, in these two years, by the Grace of Allah, Allah, Allah. Yeah. Because people now started to feel secure. And they started to view that there is a rule of law.
They also understood when I spoke to them about that Sharia is a comprehensive way of life is not just the, the application of the dude or the prohibition of riba. And they understand that fully. Yeah. At least theoretically, in front of us. Okay.
The application, we we cannot investigate the application or the implementation of that. Yep. But they understood that, in fact, when I spoke to the the chief judge, yep. The chief judge, and he is the head of the High Court, although he did not go through the formal educational or academic study they have in Islam, but the way he was speaking, you know, what Allah He was so impressive. Yeah. Very clever, very articulate, very organized, very, very organized. Yeah.
Very sharp.
And he knows he knows all these allegations against the Islamic Amara of understand against Sharia. And he gave us so many examples of the implementation of the rule of law. In fact, in fact, you will be shocked. Yeah, you will be shocked that his ministry, the Ministry of Justice, is overseeing the implementation of Islamic values everywhere in the country. And if there is any violation, any violation, yeah, they will report it to the to him, yep, there is a reporting system. And then he will see what can be done. And he will speak directly to the people in charge. And in particular, I asked him about committing injustice against poor people,
maybe violating the women's rights, as they say, and he said that, that even that that is the first thing to be monitored. Yeah. In fact, there was an incident, I might share the details of that incident, whereby
that incident was reported to us by the Minister of enjoying dividend forbidding the evil.
He said, I asked him about the what is it?
What is it violating
the rights of people due to power using the power to violate rights of people or taking advantage of their power? And he said, this has happened. And he said, It has happened one time that one of our people
stopped some a taxi driver, and he warned him once or twice, three times for whatever reason.
The taxi driver over some time didn't listen to the guidelines. So, so he said, our guy slept today.
The taxi driver, and the taxi driver did not hold it. And he wrote a complaint. And we investigated and we found that actually, yes, our member have this lab, that person. Immediately we filed him, we call the taxi driver. And they gave him compensation. And they had ordered them the Minister of enjoining return forbidding the evil, interviewed him and apologize. On behalf of the
of the ministry. Yep.
The Minister, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Justice, I asked him about imprisonment and these things. He said, we have a law that you cannot imprison any person, more than 72 hours. Yeah, more than 72 hours. And either he should be charged or released. And funny enough to say that
I visited some people. Here in Afghanistan, one of the brothers actually, is from the UK. So he invited me to some of his relatives house. So I met with them. Some of them are young, some of them are their 40s 50s. And then father as well. So just listening to them. So I mentioned them, I mentioned to them this issue. And they laughed. I said, what don't tell me that this is not true. Okay. They said no so on so he was imprisoned by the the the ministerial in joining the den forbidding the evil one young boy, he was, I think, 19 something like this. I said, What? Really? Yeah. I said, How long? You were in prison? He said 17 hour? I said one seven? He said yes. I said,
so they said that we will not exceed 72 hours. Yeah, this is the the law. Yeah.
So this
short,
okay. Of course, I have to say, Listen, I have brothers and sisters, I have not, I verified whatever I can verify yet, but I, it is impossible for me to verify these things deeply. I need months, and I need to live here in order to verify them. But I verified whatever I could.
And these are my finding the Minister of Justice, he said something.
And another thing that is interesting, or the Minister of enjoining, good and forbidding the evil and I verified it with people and they said yes, this is absolutely right. Which is
direct dealers. You know, Afghanistan used to have 1000s. Of course, they now there are this year in particular, zero rpm. Okay. Agriculture. Is it opium they call it hashish? opium?
Yeah, zero. Yeah. Last year, there were some because they have issued the warning last year. And this year, they said no, execute. So there were 1000s of drug dealers in the streets. And they managed to maybe cut that
cut 90% of their prisons, and they send them to rehabilitation centers. Yeah. And they taught them skills. And everyone agrees that, yes, they were really successful in this.
Beggars in the streets, you know, beggars in the streets. There are still beggars in the streets outside the mosques. No one can deny that. Yeah. But the everyone says everyone confirms that you don't see them as you used to see them before. Yeah. Next to every single traffic light.
There are beggars who are begging Yep. You don't see that. Of course, in terms of security, this is I think, everyone is praising that whether they agree with them or they do not agree with them. They say look, for example.
The money exchange, yeah, money exchange in a very basic
setup. They have a person who this tall and with some money. Yeah. And he's just exchanging and no one can touch you the money. You know, you will know when they
See, listen if for example someone from abroad criticize them for their their money exchange system, this will be ridiculous. Go to the country see the situation of the country here,
instead of just criticizing them, Let us raise our voice that these economic sanctions have to come to an end.
And maybe this is my final message, these sanctions have to come to an end it is totally unfair. Those will lie when you travel and use the those young innocent people there are those who are suffering the most, especially the people in villages and the sanctions are affecting them. Yeah, in the first place. So, is this fair? And when I interviewed some of the young people I see in their eyes that
Subhanallah as if they are saying
why you don't consider us as normal human beings? Yeah, you don't consider us as we are normal human beings, we have the right to live we have the right to have secure country we have we have the right to have access to good or reasonable health care system, educational system, etc, etc.
What are some of the things that people are suffering from due to you know, oppressive policies and sanctions from Western nations? He of course, in order to confirm this, you have to interview
hundreds of people, okay. You see, actually, what we have seen through interviewing some people that there are mixed feelings. Okay, so some people who are on the
maybe a 240 Okay, they,
as if they say enough is enough, we have been traumatized by the everyday bombing, killing invasion of people, foreigners want to enforce your enforce their values upon you know, we interviewed some,
some village people, and there were a group of old people, maybe they are definitely 70 Plus around 80 Plus, and one of them said that that area was controlled by the French. Yeah, as you know, that it is the entire name to invaded Afghanistan, you have 50 plus countries, okay.
went to America. Anyway, he said our area was controlled by the French and he said they have no right now whatsoever and they are expecting that yeah, they come to our country, they invade our country, they control us, they impose their culture upon us. And we do not say no, we do not resist.
He said as villagers.
The the, my children participated in riots. One of them was 16 and 18. Imagine we are villagers. We haven't seen, you know, Western in us in our life. Yeah. Except the Russians when they invaded our country and the French Other than that, we are just living simple life and we want to get on with our struggles, daily struggles. And so he said the French managed to, to arrest both of my children. And they killed both of them in front of my eyes. Yeah, because they just participated in riots. And they said, Gee, Mujahideen Mujahideen, okay Taliban party, but they said they shocked them here. Yeah. And you hear
stories really very traumatizing the story. Despite that, well, like it was shocking. Only the people were smiling. Yeah. The people they want to get on with their life. Yeah, the people have suburbs. I imagine that if those people were not Muslims who are not believers, I think they will just go crazy. When we traveled from we pass by by the way background Yeah, the biggest the biggest Yeah. Bass American bass. And they said that they are now uncertain get into into I think marketplace, etc. Okay, we couldn't
I've managed to visit anyway. So
you see the people, the villagers, and they want to get on with their life. And you come as a foreigner, and you want to impose certain values upon them. Okay? It doesn't work. And as we said, you see people who lost their arms lost both of their legs. Yeah.
Lost
their eyes, blind people lost one of their eyes. Later on, there was one person, he lost eight, eight of his eight members of his family in, in one of the bombings. Yeah. So
to be honest with you, I'm so sorry to take long, because I am still in Afghanistan, and then I'm still immense in these feelings. And I really appeal to, to any person who have a level of a human feeling, you know, feelings of a human being
leave them alone. If you can't help them, just leave them alone. Yeah. Don't participate in the stereotyping criticizing them. Okay.
Yeah, just leave them alone. However, I'm not expecting the from the Muslim community to leave them alone. Yeah, I'm expecting from the Muslim community from the Muslim ummah to help them
Yeah, to help them they really need help to pan Allah Misaki in Masaki in sometimes you cannot control your tears when you see these widows and you can, you know, when you see some of them, I was talking to
Chef Abdul Rahman. I said, Chef, you know,
one of them could be my wife could be your wife, you know, and they are sitting very poor. They are learning basic skills of cutting, sewing, and even they don't have material. They use the old bags, and in order to learn just some basic skills so they can just live in dignity. One of them has a three
orphans that she is looking after them. One of them. Her husband is paralyzed, and one of them.
She is alone. There is no one around her from anywhere.
of her family is so sad. And when we visited the orphanage, yeah.
And really, it is heartbreaking. You see those
children. They could be my children. They could be your children. They could be
anyone's children, and innocent people studying. We visited one orphanage
run by our brothers in human aid. And there were handwritten maybe 20 People in four rooms. In each room. Yeah, in each room. There is almost nothing in the room. This is their accommodation. This is the classroom. Yeah, this is where they eat. This is where they drink. This is where they you go to the toilet, they have two, two or maybe three toilets have no facilities whatsoever. I wonder whether those younger children they take showers or not. Yeah. And later on, there is no heating system. And they just smile they learn Quran they learn the basic Islamic knowledge, they learn other skills, even the educational system is unable to accommodate all these children and these
children could be my children could be your children. And I say Allah, Ya Allah, Allah, Allah, bestow Your Rana upon them and bestow on Rama upon us to help them to help them
because we, they are deprived of certain things and
this is a test
as Allah, Allah, Allah says in the Quran, Allah we use sha Allah Allah and Allah can Leah blue or Baba can develop Allah could give them in abundance, but Allah Allah Allah wants to test us. What are we doing to those people? My call upon the in the Muslim ummah. Yeah, the Muslim ummah.
We are living a very luxurious life. Yeah, I'm not talking about us in the UK, but I'm talking about the Muslim man. In general, many of us are living a luxurious life. Yeah, save some of your money. And instead of just going every day to the restaurants or even when you go to restaurants when you spend a lot of money, for furniture for cars, for buildings for traveling for just think of those orphans. Think of those widows think of those devastated people. Yeah.
And think, okay, when on the day of resurrection when, when Allah, Allah Allah questions you? Yeah, oh, my slave.
I became hangry I became angry and you did not feed me. And then we will say, how are you going to become hungry? How do you become hungry? Allah, Allah, Allah, look at this, why Allah, Allah, Allah said that he became hungry because he wants to show us how significant is to help your brothers and and sisters to help Muslims. Yeah, and to help people in general. So Allah, Allah, Allah would say, didn't you know that so and so became hungry? Yeah. And you did not help him? What did we prepare for this questioning? And see, if Allah Allah, Allah wa says, we're in trouble. We're stuck with the old man Raila consumerize. If you turn away and you don't help others, Allah, Allah, Allah will
bring those people who can help and provide aid for others. And, of course, all of us.
So I'm from the last year we have, we have our charity partner this year, human aid and advocacy that we can easily donate to these causes through I'll put a link, you know, show link around for brothers and sisters watching at home to set up some regular giving to try it. Yeah.
We have we have seen some of their big projects, amazing projects. In fact, one of the very amazing projects that we have seen is that
they are becoming the partners of an organization that have taken a very big center of vocal training. Okay, vocal training, they call it vocal training. Yeah. Vocational, sorry, vocational training, baby big center, that center was established by the Korean government. And they pulled down just six months before, before Parliament,
liberating their country or taking over. So and that that center was empty, no one is using it, it was well equipped
with with the equipment that, okay, that provide the skills for different fields. So the brothers in human aid managed to have partnership with the organization in charge of that, and they started to run that. Yeah.
So actually, and they have one orphanage and this they have a Vocational Center for widows. Yeah. And also, they are sponsoring, you know, when the heat is really heartbreaking, sorry, we need to do to stop, you know, we visited one village, you know, out of nowhere, out of nowhere, and I don't know how many they managed to get into those people. And they said to us, that they said that there are 1000s If not 10s of 1000 of those widows Yeah, they living in, in a very simple, hot to no electricity, no facilities and nothing. Yeah. And they gave them Zika money in cash because, you know, they sent me Council a few rules. The Islamic Council of Europe did not approve,
giving the care except in cash to the recipient. And, you know, the father of I don't know the father of the father who passed away or the father of
the widow. He was a very old person, and he was over the moon and he came out of that hot that is made of clay hot, you know, and when we left buy cards and he was making two, and he was overwhelmed by just I don't know how much they gave him they gave him I think small amount is not
To 1000s Yeah, but so I call really upon my brothers and sisters yet some of you, which I don't want to use the word extravagance Yeah, some of you are expensive. Yeah, save them to save them and low expenses will help you on the Day of Resurrection. My dear brothers and sisters in the grave, Wallah you will wish if you have given all of your money, disability, yeah, once you are questioned on the in the grave, as the Prophet sallallahu sallam said the person will be questioned in the grave and the punishment there will be will about to attack him.
And, and then the sadaqa will defend him. Yeah, the sadaqa will defend him. The Prophet sallallahu sallam said it taco now that will be shipped with Tambora put a screen between you and the fire of health even by donating part of the date you know as as your setup. So brothers and sisters in the UK Mashallah. You are very, very rich.
Surely you are very, very generous, and some of us are Rachel Hamdulillah, even those who are not rich enough, but Alhamdulillah we have enough access to the basic needs and extra.
I think the more we give sadaqa the more in sha Allah Allah will put Baraka in our children in our money in a in our life, and the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam swore an oath that sadaqa will never decrease your wealth. And our the law mentioned that okay, whoever gives sadaqa is actually giving Allah Allah Allah alone man, the lady OpenNebula urban Hassan, and Allah Allah Allah Allah will return it after Allah Allah Allah multiplies it for you number of times, we ask them to help us to help them dessert allotted for this interview. I know I myself I was tired and I really want to go to bed here it is almost.
But but it's
very emotional.
This experience and although there is a lot of hope, yeah Alhamdulillah but
yeah, the person will will will never despair. Their Muslim will never despair. Lay assume Allahu Allah in the home will Caballero and in sha Allah in sha Allah, the country has a lot of potential.
People have a lot of potential. We ask Allah, Allah to help
and to help us as well. Yes, shake when you return Shala safely Inshallah, from your trip, we want to speak to you we've got lots of questions about you know, the government, its its political aims, its relationship with other nations and so forth.
So, when you do return inshallah safely, we will will want to conduct a definite probably
a very good job.
You've given us very good insight into, you know, the humanitarian situation here on the ground there. Some of the improvements, some of the the surprises that you had, you know, the presumptions versus the reality when you when you landed in Afghanistan, so we hope you have the rest of your trip in a safe way. And
Charla, yeah, please share this information with every one as soon as possible. Yeah, share the brothers and sisters to donate generously, we'll put the,
the links to the projects that can donate to go directly to the brothers over there in Afghanistan, to help alleviate the poverty and help them you know, train themselves in their community and bring themselves lift themselves out of poverty, Inshallah, and the next Inshallah, when you return to the next conversation, we'll talk about maybe some other things that we can do from here from, you know, the Western countries, for example, maybe politically what kinds of campaigns what kinds of pressure we can put on our governments, for example, and other governments to to stop starving.
Definitely not the
sanctions to stop the oppression of the Afghan Afghans. So Jack Ma Ferran Sheikh will let you buy