Los Angeles, Feb. 27 — Mariam Solaimankhil, an Afghan lawmaker living in exile, says the intensifying confrontation between Afghanistan and Pakistan and broader regional rivalries have stripped Afghan women of security and rights, with women and children bearing the heaviest toll.
In an interview with ANI, Solaimankhil rejected assertions that recent airstrikes only struck militants, saying civilians are the principal victims. “It’s women and children. We see the pictures. We see the videos. And it’s always been women and children,” she told ANI, adding that non-combatants are harmed both inside Afghanistan and across the border.
She charged that civilians are being targeted within Pakistan as well, pointing to provinces such as Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Solaimankhil cited activists and politicians she says are jailed while extremists remain connected to powerful figures, naming Mahrang Baloch and Ali Wazir as examples.
Solaimankhil accused elements inside Pakistan of fostering extremist groups over decades, listing Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba among organizations she says were cultivated there. She argued that the violent ideology taking root in the region is not indigenous but was “made in Rawalpindi.”
Beyond deaths and injuries, she warned of deep psychological damage that affects survivors and spans generations. “Surviving and living are two different things. They’re not free. They’re psychologically in prisons, and they’re in fear at all times,” she said, describing the long-term trauma that haunts families.
Solaimankhil said Afghan women now find themselves trapped between ongoing fighting and Taliban-imposed restrictions, with limited access to justice or protection. “There is no UN, there is no Amnesty, there is no human rights for Afghans. It’s incredibly sad,” she said.
She recalled that Afghan women once enjoyed substantial rights, including voting and land ownership, sometimes ahead of Western women, and lamented that politics and war have since torn those rights away.
Critical of those she says profit from conflict, Solaimankhil urged ordinary people—especially women—to lead peace efforts. She called for solidarity among women across borders, specifically citing women of India and Afghanistan as potential “bridges to peace,” and said she places more faith in grassroots women’s action than in international bodies.
Her remarks come amid heightened tensions along the Durand Line after Pakistani airstrikes on Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia, incidents that have produced casualties and mutual accusations of aggression. (ANI)
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