By Jason Hatch and Karen Kraft, Operation Snow Leopard
Interior of the newly inaugurated Wolesi Jirga Hall of Afghan Parliament (Photo Credit: Wolesi Jirga Website 2015)
Background
The Fall of a Republic
The last tragic iteration of a democratically elected government in Afghanistan came to an end on 15 August 2021.
It had been established in 2005, with its electoral branch consisting of a lower house (Wolesi Jirga – 250 seats) and an upper house (Meshrano Jirga – 120 seats). The Afghanistan Constitution, ratified in 2004, explicitly stated that men and women had equal rights and duties before the law. It reserved specific seats in both chambers for female candidates, reflecting a commitment to gender equality supported by male leaders advocating for women’s representation in the newly formed republic.
Flash forward to August 2021, and legislative authority was subsequently assumed by the Taliban-controlled Leadership Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
As of today, not one single woman serves as minister in the Taliban-led Afghan government. Now the former women MPs, and their male counterparts and staff who supported them, live in fear and in hiding with few willing to help them in their hour of need.
The Erasure of Women and Girls
Over the past two years, women and girls in Afghanistan have faced severe repression under Taliban rule. It seems that with each passing month, the Taliban implement new bans stripping women of freedoms such as holding government jobs, barring them from traveling distances without a male chaperone, and dictating what women could wear. Girls are now banned from school after sixth grade (age 11), making Afghanistan the only country where girls are barred from schools based on gender.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, as of March 2204, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.
And still, the world remains largely silent.
A Mission Quandary
Operation Snow Leopard (OSL) is a US-based 501c3 non-profit formed after coalition forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. It is an all-volunteer humanitarian organization comprised of military veterans, civilians, and Afghans. Members hail from eight countries, speak a dozen languages, and represent three major religions.
OSL’s relationship with Afghanistan’s former elected leaders began in August 2021 when an appeal was received to assist with the evacuation of several female MPs and Senators who had been threatened by the Taliban.
Up to this point, OSL had been focusing its evacuation efforts on former members of the Afghan military, women’s rights advocates, activists, journalists, doctors, filmmakers, etc. Most assumed that the elected officials had been prioritized for evacuation by the various governments that had played a role in establishing Afghanistan’s short-lived democracy. A cursory examination of records suggests that several billion dollars had been spent on establishing and maintaining Afghanistan’s Parliament. It was inconceivable that such a massive investment in the democratic process would not attract the attention of a sympathetic foreign government. However, it became readily apparent that these individuals had not been prioritized and were largely left to their own devices in arranging their escape from the country and a vindictive Taliban regime.
Some Parliamentarians successfully leveraged existing relationships with people/organizations in other countries to effectuate their resettlement. However, many were left in Afghanistan, and OSL’s efforts over the past two years and nine months have been a painful lesson in futility. Most do not meet the stringent requirements of requesting asylum simply because they choose to work for their government rather than choosing employment through a foreign coalition government. Doing so penalized them as they needed to meet the one-year work requirement with a foreign government to apply for special visas and leave Afghanistan.
To date, no nation or international institution has prioritized the resettlement of the Republic’s former lawmakers. At best, a few organizations continue to call for assistance. Still, the focus is only on resettlement for female MPs and not their male counterparts, many of whom fought valiantly for inclusivity and equal rights for women throughout their political careers.
Additionally, the parliamentary staff members are seldom discussed even though they often served to maintain continuity in their respective houses and were charged with implementing programs considered to be heretical in the eyes of the current Taliban leadership. This is the reality the stranded Parliamentarians face today.
A woman looks at a picture of former Afghan lawmaker Mursal Nabizada on her mobile phone, who was shot dead by gunmen at her house in Kabul on January 15, 2023. Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images. Link to the source article: CNN
General Amnesty Promised by Taliban
The Taliban regime launched several propaganda efforts throughout 2022 designed to ameliorate the negative opinion of the nascent Emirate. No efforts were spared to convince the international community that the Taliban 2.0 was a much-moderated regime deserving of acceptance into the community of nations.
As part of this strategy, the Taliban announced a General Amnesty for all former members of the previous government that would, in theory, ensure they would not suffer retribution or retaliation for their roles in the Republic. Some chose to take the Taliban up on the offer, and it is unclear if these promises were kept (which should say something in itself). However, multiple examples are under investigation, suggesting that the amnesty guarantee was merely propaganda. Threats of execution, illegal detention, the confiscation of property, and other abuses are constantly received from those who once served democracy.
In January of 2023, former MP Mursal Nabizada was shot and killed in her home in Kabul, and the circumstances surrounding her murder have been called into question. Her murder was particularly painful for OSL as she was one of those on our list to evacuate.
Other Senators, MPs, and former Parliamentary Staff have reported numerous incidents of beatings, extortion, and threats of both detention and even murder. Those fortunate enough to avoid such occurrences have been consigned to a life of social exclusion and are unlikely to be allowed to participate in commerce, education, and other things most take for granted. Worse still, the taint of their former roles seems to have spread to their family members, many of whom say they have been fired from jobs, forced to quit school and face other forms of persecution for simply being related to former government officials.
In short, there is no future for former officials of the regime in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. For women, there is no future at all.
OSL’s Efforts
After agreeing to assist the Afghan Parliamentarians in August 2021, OSL began canvassing various governments around the globe to find resettlement pathways for them. Discussions with over forty nations produced very few offers for the former lawmakers. Some who made offers proved so punctilious that OSL was forced to conclude they were not sincere offers but a stall-for-time strategy.
In 2022, OSL was introduced to the Inter-Parliamentary Union through a South American contact, and discussions were initiated to try and find a solution for the Afghan Parliamentarians and select Parliamentary Staff who remained under threat. OSL has since participated in several international dialogues on four different continents to attempt to break the impasse.
To better advocate for the Parliamentarians, OSL has sent delegations to attend the IPU General Assemblies in 2023 (Bahrain) and 2024 (Geneva), two additional visits to Geneva for coordination with both IPU and the United Nations, two delegation visits to South America, and multiple trips within the United States on behalf of the Parliamentarians.
While some small gains were realized, no government or international institution has yet to solve the problem of resettling these high-profile individuals.
Why Helping Matters
“People go, but how they left always stays.”- Rupi Kaur
In the ongoing discussions with many of the parliamentarians awaiting rescue, it is apparent that many are bitter about their situation.
During an illuminating conversation with a former female MP, it was revealed that every family member had urged her not to run for office many years ago. They were concerned about potential reprisals the family could face should she win. However, she was mentored by members of an international NGO who urged her to run, and she was ultimately victorious. She did her best to institute change while in office and was, by all accounts, an excellent representative who was free from corruption. Now, she looks back with unconcealed regret over the persecution her family faces. She said that emails she has sent to her former mentors go unanswered, and her pleas for help supporting her family have fallen on deaf ears. She has no idea what the future holds and carries a tremendous amount of guilt for having put her family in such dire straits.
Many nations worked together to establish a democracy in Afghanistan. Significant resources were allocated to building a democratic state, and many of those who were encouraged to participate in the grand experiment lost their lives along the way. These leaders were encouraged and counseled to stand for what they believed in and to demand change even in the face of great personal danger. Now, they have been altogether abandoned by those who cheered them on. A most curious case indeed.
Call for Action
OSL believes the time has finally come to recognize and acknowledge the risk these men and women assumed in the name of democracy and to get them out of their nightmare situation. We desperately need assistance with finding willing resettlement countries. In addition, OSL urgently needs additional funding to pay for safe housing, food, medical care, and other incidental expenses associated with caring for Afghan refugees.
Those interested in assisting/supporting this endeavor should contact Jason Hatch at Jason.hatch@opsnowleopard.org or +1(812)219-1975 (WhatsApp + Signal enabled).
About Operation Snow Leopard
Since 2021, Operation Snow Leopard (OSL), a US 501c3 non-profit based in Virginia, has been facilitating the resettlement of former Afghan Parliament members and other at-risk individuals. OSL, an all-volunteer organization, has assisted nearly 1900 Afghans in evacuating and resettling. Our diverse team comprises military veterans, civilians, and Afghans from various professions, including active-duty military, reservists, military spouses, a former US Congressman, government workers (DoD, DHS), humanitarians, immigration attorneys (including a former Department of Justice member), security and intelligence analysts, pilots, nurses, database builders, producers, linguists, diplomats, documentarians, and graduate students. Our members hail from eight countries, speak a dozen languages, and represent three religions. OSL is grateful to many key donors in Washington such as the Peg and Rick Foundation, Kaplan Foundation, and the Phil Kaplan Fund.
OSL has been featured in the media including the BBC News Radio Programs: Escape from the Taliban and Escape from the Taliban: Point of No Return.
Contact: Jason.hatch@opsnowleopard.org | karen.kraft@opsnowleopard.org