Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi issues plea for help amid Taliban takeover

Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi issued a plea to the global cinema community to come together and support Afghan cinema as the country falls to the Taliban, reported Variety. 

The Taliban insurgency managed to take full control of Afghanistan on Sunday as the capital Kabul fell and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Just two days before the fall of Kabul, Karimi took to Twitter to issue a statement to “all the film communities in the world.”

“I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers, from the Taliban…” Karimi pleaded, before diving into the atrocities committed by the Taliban earlier.

“They massacred our people, kidnapped many children, they killed a woman in the name of dress, they tortured and killed one of our favourite comedians, they killed a prehistoric poet. They killed people associated with the government, some of us were hanged in public, and they displaced millions of families,” Karimi’s heartbreaking note read.

Pointing out the many more crises that the Afghan’s currently face, Sahraa Karimi said that this is a humanitarian crisis and the world is silent. “We are used to this silence, but we know it is not fair. We know this decision to leave our people is wrong, we need your voice,” she said.

In what should be a chilling reality check for global cinema, Karimi said that what she and other Afghan filmmakers have built will collapse under the Taliban and that “I and other filmmakers could be next on his hit list. They will violate the rights of women and our expression will be silenced.”

Concluding her lengthy statement, Sahraa Karimi issued an urgent appeal to the entertainment industry to voice out their support for Afghan cinema.

“Please support your filmmakers and artists as our voice, share this fact with your media and write about us on your social media… We need your support and voice on behalf of Afghan women, children, artists and filmmakers… Please help us before Kabul Taliban comes to power. We only have a few days.”

You can read Karimi’s full statement here:

To All the #Film_Communities in The World and Who Loves Film and Cinema!

I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers from the Taliban. #Share it please, don't be #silent. pic.twitter.com/4FjW6deKUi

— Sahraa Karimi / صحرا کریمی (@sahraakarimi) August 13, 2021

The Taliban have since taken control of Kabul, and one of Sahraa Karimi’s latest tweet read, “I still cannot believe this happened… Please pray for us, I am calling again: Hey ppl of this big world, please do not be silent, they are coming to kill us.”

Taliban surrounded Kabul, I were to bank to get some money, they closed and evacuated;

I still cannot believe this happened, who did happen.

Please pray for us, I am calling again:

Hey ppl of the this big world, please do not be silent , they are coming to kill us. pic.twitter.com/wIytLL3ZNu

— Sahraa Karimi / صحرا کریمی (@sahraakarimi) August 15, 2021