LA Youth Art Exhibit | My Voice

High school students from CALS Early College High School in Downtown Los Angeles hosted an art exhibit to raise awareness of the cost of war. More than 500 visitors viewed the exhibit on one night, Thursday, Sept. 8, during Downtown ArtWalk night.

The exhibit will have an extended opening through November. Students used the evening as a special occasion to raise money for much needed art supplies for next year’s Peace Exhibit at AFSC’s Friends Gallery.

Students were on hand to discuss their work, and how our country could have addressed a number of national and local issues instead of war. $60 was raised, and the students were proud of it!

Check out the great pictures here.

The "My Voice" exhibit was also a part Ten Years and Counting.

Click here for a calendar listing of additional art-driven events through 7 October.

Impunity, Militias and the Afghan Local Police | HRW Report

Human Rights Watch issued a report today looking at the proliferation of militia forces in Afghanistan. The report finds the U.S.-backed initiative to create the Afghan Local Police (ALP) "a high-risk strategy to achieve short-term goals in which local groups are again being armed without adequate oversight or accountability."

Refugees International and Oxfam International have also recently issued reports condemning the arming, financing and training of the Afghan Local Police.

Just Don’t Call It a Militia: Impunity, Militias and the Afghan Local Police

(Kabul) – Militias and some units of the new US-backed Afghan Local Police are committing serious human rights abuses, but the government is not providing proper oversight or holding them accountable, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Afghan government and the US should sever ties with irregular armed groups and take immediate steps to create properly trained and vetted security forces that are held accountable for their actions.

The 102-page report, “‘Just Don’t Call It a Militia:’ Impunity, Militias and the ‘Afghan Local Police,’” documents serious abuses, such as killings, rape, arbitrary detention, abductions, forcible land grabs, and illegal raids by irregular armed groups in northern Kunduz province and the Afghan Local Police (ALP) force in Baghlan, Herat, and Uruzgan provinces. The Afghan government has failed to hold these forces to account, fostering future abuses and generating support for the Taliban and other opposition forces, Human Rights Watch found.

“The Afghan government has responded to the insurgency by reactivating militias that threaten the lives of ordinary Afghans” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Kabul and Washington need to make a clean break from supporting abusive and destabilizing militias to have any hope of a viable, long-term security strategy."

Click here for the full report.

Afghan Video Shorts | Sayed Qasem Hossaini

A camera moves among woman working their last day on a job site. As they joke and fight – accusing each other of being prostitutes, liars, and racists – the mood repeatedly shifts between belly laughs and rage. The women are left waiting for hours for their pay by the charity that administers the cash-for-work program. As they wait, they consider what debts they’ll pay off, what food they’ll buy, and how they’ll stay warm during the approaching winter. There is lively discussion about what happens to all the aid that never reaches them, and whether Karzai is a crook or a servant of the people.

A Question:

Is the camera revealing anything truthful, or simply inciting these women to present what they think ‘the other’ wants to hear – or what might get them something from the world on the other side of the camera? Who is on the other side of that camera anyway? 20 min.

Death to the Camera.

Direction and Camera by Sayed Qasem Hossaini
Editing by Hamed Alizada
Sound by Mona Haidari

Sayed Qasem Hossaini, after growing up in Sari Pul and Balk provinces, now studies in the Cinema and Fine Arts department at Kabul University. He has previously produced a short video report on carpet making, served as a sports reporter for a community newspaper, and works as a freelance production assistant.

Click here for a page with all the films.

Afghan Video Shorts | Baqir Tawakoli

In most corners of the world, a woman’s work is never done. In Beyond Fatigue an Afghan woman walks miles to help her sick mother-in-law and is responsible for the next generation of young minds as she teaches them the language and lessons of the Quran.

In between she works at the vocational training center where she hopes to get a loan to buy her own sewing machine. 9 min.

Beyond Fatigue - Full Version

Direction, Camera and Sound by Baqir Tawakoli
Editing by Hamid Arshia
Production Assistance and Additional Sound by Reza Sahel

Baqir Tawakoli lives and works in Bamyan province. He is a poet and short story writer, and has previous training in photography. Baqir works and volunteers with economic and social development agencies, and was head of his village’s Community Development Council.

Afghan Voices Reflect on 9/11 | Mohamed Naim

Writing for Al Jazeera, Mujib Mashal profiles a number of Afghan political and civil society leaders. The responses are frank, insightful, and often self-critical. You see the divisions that exist and the inspiring work being done to create a better future.

Mohamed Naim, Taxi Driver

"At the time of 9/11, I was living in a refugee camp in Pakistan. I lived there for 20 years. I first lived in Parachinar, but I lost a son in the sectarian tensions, so I moved out to a camp.

I remember watching the flames in the New York buildings on TV. I also remember the threats that were given to the Taliban by the American government to pressure them to give up Osama.

The US invaded because of its own goals. This country has vast minerals, that's what they want. If they did not have their eye on that, they would have figured out a deal with the Taliban to get Osama. You have to remember that Taliban were their people as well.

When the Karzai government came to power, I brought my family back into the country and have been living in Kabul ever since.

Life has gotten much better in the past few years, we have definitely seen positive economic change. We were refugees for so many years, and we could come back to our homes and make a living here. Yes, there is a lot of corruption, but at least there is a government and a system. In some areas, security is really bad. But in general, life has gotten better."

* Today (9 September) is also significant. Marking ten years since the assassination of Mujahedeen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud by al-Qaida suicide bombers posing as journalists. He fought Soviet troops and their allies in the 1980s and led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s.

Afghan Voices Reflect on 9/11 | Wazhma Frogh

Writing for Al Jazeera, Mujib Mashal profiles a number of Afghan political and civil society leaders. The responses are frank, insightful, and often self-critical. You see the divisions that exist and the inspiring work being done to create a better future.

Wazhma Frogh, Activist

"At the time, I was working with an international humanitarian aid organisation in Peshawar, Pakistan, that was supporting Afghan refugees. The organisation also carried out emergency support projects for Afghans inside the country. Occasionally, I came to Kabul and visited some provinces, but of course I had to show it as a completely private visit and I had to be accompanied by male family members.

On September 11, 2001 which was a work day, I was at the Zakhail camp in Peshawar. I had a focus-group discussion with women and girls on some of hygiene issues and they were asking for literacy courses, though some of the Jihadi commanders at the camp prevented it.

Myself and another colleague decided to speak with one of those former commanders and try to convince him to allow classes. As we were debating the issue with him, his son came running in and said there was a messenger for him from Jalalabad.

Later on, from the others in the camp, we learned attacks had happened in New York and that he was called to the frontlines as the Afghan opposition fighters against the Taliban wanted to make use of the opportunity.

When we saw and heard about the attacks through international media in Peshawar, my first impression was that it was done by the same people that the US had supported during the Jihad against the Soviets. US dollars and ammunition of the Arab countries during the Soviet war turned our national resistance movement against the Soviets into a proxy war for the advantage of capitalism. Our war commanders won and the Afghan nation lost in a perpetual factional war.

But I also realise that the September 11 attacks opened a new-page in the modern history. Afghanistan never received this much international attention before.

Today, at least the visible activism I do for Afghanistan nationally and internationally can be attributed to the new political regime that came after September 11 in Afghanistan.

Also on the positive side, I think some of the Afghans were able to use the opportunities and create a space for civil society development. The freedom of media (somehow), women's organisations, activism, and of course private sector development can also be attributed to the aftermath of September 11, 2001 in Afghanistan. Though very fragile, some foundation has been laid out.

But we still need to find more legitimacy in Afghan society because since our projects are supported internationally, our activism is also seen as a 'foreign project' even though we're putting our lives and risking our lives.

However, the bombing of Afghan villages within the Operation Enduring Freedom was for the purpose of Osama Bin Laden and his supporters. As a result of the US bombing, the Taliban regime fell and a new power structure enabled women's political and social participation. But women's progress can only be indirectly accredited to the aftermath of September 11.

I believe the biggest mistake of the aftermath of 9/11 was that Afghanistan was that they did not have a long term vision for the country. The US and its allies did not even bother to correct their past mistakes of supporting individual warlords and tribal leaders for their own purposes. Today Afghanistan is suffering in the hands of the same warlords that actively destroyed the country during 1990s factional war. The reason that people have lost faith in the government and going towards the Taliban are these warlords, now in suit and tie, holding very important positions."

* Today (9 September) is also significant. Marking ten years since the assassination of Mujahedeen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud by al-Qaida suicide bombers posing as journalists. He fought Soviet troops and their allies in the 1980s and led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s.

Afghan Voices Reflect on 9/11 | Janan Mosazai

Writing for Al Jazeera, Mujib Mashal profiles a number of Afghan political and civil society leaders. The responses are frank, insightful, and often self-critical. You see the divisions that exist and the inspiring work being done to create a better future.

Janan Mosazai, Spokesman, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

"In late August 2001, I had to flee Afghanistan because I happened to be working for an international organistation that was shut down by the Taliban. They also, somehow, decided to arrest its Afghan staff. So I decided to leave Afghanistan for a few days and go to Pakistan.

I was in Peshawar when 9/11 happened.

I was staying at a hotel and I used to take up the papers every morning. There were front page, large pictures of the twin-towers in flames. And, of course, 9/11 happened two days after al-Qaeda operatives assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud. So that was still the main news on people's minds, certainly Afghans' minds. 9/11 just heightened people's anxieties and sense about impending change.

For Afghans at the time, after the assassination of Massoud, the feeling was that it was a matter of time before the Taliban ran over the remaining resistance. But once the US blamed Bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks, the picture changed. I certainly didn't think, during the first week, that the United States would use 9/11 to launch a full-fledged military campaign in the region. But with time, that became obvious.

Then I started working for the BBC, and we did some reports on what the refugee community thought about the war. We, for example, went to the refugee camp in Abbotabad, where Bin Laden was finally found ten years later. There were mixed views about the military campaign. There was widespread concern about possible damage to civilian life and property and there had been reports of a few stray bombs hitting civilians. Al Jazeera was one of the only media channels allowed to broadcast out of Afghanistan at the time, I remember. But there was also a sense of jubilation among the people, that they could return home-after being forced to take refuge two or three times in the previous decades. Some were refugees three times over. That they could return to a more peaceful Afghanistan because the United States, the most powerful country in the world, had finally decided to intervene.

People drew the connection to the military campaign launched in Afghanistan- they did not know all the details of the 9/11 attacks, but they knew that a big attack had happened in the united States that had connection to folks in Afghanistan who were not afghans but Arabs.

I think in the opinion of the vast majority in this country, the removal of the Taliban and the intervention of the international community- under a UN mandate, let's be clear about that- provided a lot of us a golden opportunity to the turn the page on more than 20 years of tragic conflict. The buzz words back then were: a new Afghanistan, a new beginning, a better future. That was because people saw the possibilities.

I think, on balance, we probably could do better. But because we are where we are today, Afghanistan is a better country than it was in 2001. It is a transformed country in so many different ways. In terms of infrastructure development, healthcare, education, emergence of a national economy, political and human rights.

The fact that today, compared to ten years ago, when you talk about human rights and elections, they are not alien concepts to the people of the country but embedded in the consciousness of the people speaks to the transformation from ten years ago.

But we still have major obstacles and challenges to overcome. And change takes time.

In the regional question for example, change in how a country views its interests and its approach to its neighbours takes much longer. That doesn't mean for us to give up and accept the status quo. We have been trying for the past ten years to convince our neighbors and the region that a stable Afghanistan is essential for the stability and security in the region. I think we have made some progress on that front. We are engaged in a substantially different conversation with Pakistan, where there is no denial of the facts on the ground. We talk frankly about all issues on the table-about where the Taliban are, for example. We are also discussing several economic projects. These developments I think are important to building trust and moving forward."

* Today (9 September) is also significant. Marking ten years since the assassination of Mujahedeen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud by al-Qaida suicide bombers posing as journalists. He fought Soviet troops and their allies in the 1980s and led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in the 1990s.