[I feel the burden of having to demonstrate that my ancestral
homeland deserves to exist, and that my people are human and
multi-faceted, with a rich history and resistance, and deserve the
opportunity to thrive.] [[link removed]]

9/11 & THE WAR ON TERROR: A QUEER AFGHAN REFLECTS  
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Neda Said
September 10, 2021
Organizing Upgrade
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_ I feel the burden of having to demonstrate that my ancestral
homeland deserves to exist, and that my people are human and
multi-faceted, with a rich history and resistance, and deserve the
opportunity to thrive. _

Women protest in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan on Sept. 5.
Participants, who included members of the Revolutionary Association of
Women of Afghanistan, demanded that the Taliban respect their
rights..., @RealRAWAacct

 

As the 20-year anniversary of the so-called “War on Terror” (WoT)
approached, I was filled with dread, anger, and immense grief. With
the Taliban seizure of Kabul
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on August 15, and the events and turmoil in Afghanistan that followed,
those feelings have only intensified. Alongside this grief, I also
hold pride and solidarity with the continued resistance from
Afghanistan
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and all other peoples colonized by the United States – and rage at
the imperialist violence that continued for decades amidst what felt
like so much silence.

A lot happened after 9/11, but one salient impact on my life was
becoming a spokesperson for my people at the tender age of 11 years
old. _Representing Afghans felt like my one opportunity to humanize
and clarify the persistent misinformation that constantly confronted
me through ignorant questions, stereotypes, and discrimination._ As an
11-year-old, I knew enough to feel resentment that the American public
didn’t know anything about our people, thought we were backwards
people that needed saving, or all terrorists. Then and still now, I
feel the burden of having to demonstrate that my ancestral homeland
deserves to exist, and that my people are human and multi-faceted,
with a rich history and resistance, and deserve the opportunity to
thrive. This is just one of the many ways we have had to bear the
weight of structural Islamophobia
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_I have come to realize that this xenophobic violence is an essential
insurance for the U.S. military project. The masses in the U.S. have
known so little about what is happening in Afghanistan – the
violence inflicted during the U.S. occupation, and the __history of
intervention_
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that resourced corrupt, violent leaders and put them in positions of
power. The fabricated facade and one-dimensional story that has been
used to justify this colonial project has thrived, at the __expense of
so many lives_
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‘WAR ON TERROR’ SPREADS WORLDWIDE

The WoT opened the door for increased American military intervention
and violence in the U.S. and beyond. Hundreds of thousands of people
have been murdered around the world. In the United States, communities
from the SWANA (South West Asian and North African) region, the Muslim
world, and perceived adjacent communities, have experienced law
enforcement harassment, entrapment and surveillance, heightened
airport profiling and discrimination, interpersonal hate incidents,
and detention.

This targeting of communities created the impossible task of
demonstrating you were a “good immigrant,” a Muslim that was
American enough – if you had the privilege that allowed for it.
After the FBI detained a member of my family for hours of questioning
and showed up at my home (even questioning me – still 11 years old),
my family put up an American flag in front of the house, out of fear.
They felt, like many others, that they had to prove that we weren’t
“one of them.” In reality, that “them” was an American
fabrication. We heard the myth that the U.S. needed to invade with no
mention of its covert funding
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of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, even paying for textbooks
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no acknowledgement that most Taliban are not Afghan and do not
represent Afghan culture and values. This American fabrication also
fueled racism within the U.S., with countless assaults and murders of
Muslims, or those who appear to be Muslim, rampant discrimination, and
people insisting (and enlisting) with fervor because “we had to stop
those terrorists.”

_In my organizing, I often am struck by how the carceral state uses
the same tools as domestic violence: tactics to gain and maintain
power and control such as gaslighting, manipulation, economic abuse,
escalated harm if you resist, and more. The same parallel applies to
imperialism – exemplifying the global reaches of the carceral state
– where Afghans were told they needed to be saved, but at the cost
of their lives and self-determination._

I see the ways Islamophobia functions to manipulate, “other,” and
paint us as deviant as a means to justify imperialism and occupation.
For example, American media embraced gendered Islamophobia
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in critiquing Afghan gender-based violence. Is baacha baazi (boy play)
so different than the rampant child sexual abuse, pedophilia, violence
and exploitation in this country, often and especially by men in
power? How was the United States trying to gain rights for women in
Afghanistan when the American military uses sexual assault as a tool
of war, and rapes, murders, and collects the body parts
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of Afghan people? This is particularly ironic given the rampant sexual
assault within the American military
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usually followed by retaliating against survivors or sweeping it under
the rug, and high rates of domestic violence in the United States
(particularly in police
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and military
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families). In the same country where police murdered Breonna Taylor,
Sandra Bland, Tony McDade, and countless others, that forcibly
sterilizes incarcerated people
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without their knowledge or consent, where exactly is this bastion of
gender equality?

_They flattened us, made us one dimensional, and framed us as
backwards, savage people that needed to be saved because we don’t
know any better. _And after 20 years (and many more of slightly more
covert U.S. intervention in Afghanistan), not only did I internalize
some of this racism as a child, but I also didn’t even have access
to information about my people._ While my ancestral homeland has been
occupied for most of my lifetime, while we are consumed by
militaristic propaganda, all I learned in school was that Afghanistan
had one of the highest numbers of refugees and landmines, but no
mention of why and the role of the United States in destabilizing my
country. _

The pervasiveness and invisibility of gender-based violence is not
uniquely Afghan. Muslim, SWANA, and adjacent communities are not
inherently more misogynistic or violent than other cultures. The hard
truth is that patriarchy is universal, it just manifests itself
differently (and was often inserted into these cultures by
colonization). I have had to explain these truths countless times.

WE RESIST

There are so many truths to learn that dispel the stereotypes American
media has churned out for decades. _Afghan resistance exists, __led by
women_
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the __Hazara community_
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queer people, and other marginalized communities._ The thing that
gives me the most hope in this current moment is being able to witness
Afghan resistance – journalists continuing to report, public
protests led by women yelling in the faces of the Taliban, and the
resistance movement in Panjshir. Here in the West, people are finally
talking more about the U.S.’ malicious imperial history, and
advocating for people to get asylum, donating to Afghan led efforts,
and listening to Afghans tell our version of the story.

With current events, the history of American intervention and
occupation framed as the WoT, and corresponding Islamophobic
propaganda, it felt so important to talk about the full human impact
of the past 20 years of American military violence (see our research
here [[link removed]]). In my experience, I heard
conversation around lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, profits of
military defense contractors, discrimination and deportation,
detention, but these were always separate and disconnected. Now seeing
them all together, although devastating, helps me wrap my head around
the deep, irreversible ramifications of the WoT. It gives me something
concrete to explain so much of the pain I feel in my heart, and the
heartbreak I feel for our people.

However, we have not been suffering in silence. We have been healing,
organizing, and building power to resist. We strive toward liberation
even when still caught in tangles of U.S. imperialism, even when it
has been rebranded as the WoT. Those in the diaspora like myself must
continue to organize in honor of and in partnership with our ancestral
homelands, because they are resisting too. _Progressive and
abolitionist movements in the United States must include an
anti-militarist and anti-imperialist lens to truly fight for
liberation for all of our people._

I’m sending you all much love, care, and prayer. Together we grieve,
and together we rise.

# # #

_This article is being co-published with Queer Crescent
[[link removed]]. See below for a resource list and
an excerpt from their infographics
[[link removed]] series on the War on Terror._

OPPORTUNITIES TO MOBILIZE

Support & Solidarity with Afghanistan (This list is based on current
needs, but the situation is evolving, and there are many opportunities
to support beyond those we list.):

– List of active fundraisers [[link removed]]

– Hazara Refugee Relief Fund [[link removed]]

– Follow [[link removed]], support, and donate
[[link removed]] to the Revolutionary Association of
the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

– Support Immigration Equality
[[link removed]]’s work to help LGBTQ Afghans

– Sponsor an Afghan family applying for humanitarian parole:
bit.ly/HPSponsor [[link removed]]  (costs nothing)

– Help Afghan families with humanitarian parole applications:
bit.ly/HPLegal [[link removed]]

– Support with the cost of humanitarian parole applications:
bit.ly/HPAfghans [[link removed]]

– Instagram pages to follow for information, updates, and analysis:
@unitedafgassociation, @adeprogress, @blingistan, @missminakabul,
@realrawaofficial, @afghania_barakzai, @thebulbulbird,
@sincerelynooria, @burquasandbeer

More information:

– Check out the new Muslim Abolitionist Futures website
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– Watch the Dissenters event: Abolition Means No War: The New
Generation of Anti-Imperialists
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to join this anti-war org too!)

* Haymarket Panel: September 10: Twenty Years After 9/11:
Islamophobia & The Politics of Empire
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_Neda Said is an angry Afghan abolitionist. They are an organizer with
Queer Crescent ([link removed]
[[link removed]]) and Survived & Punished
([link removed] [[link removed]])_

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