Former President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, currently living in exile, has expressed concern about the de-identification of Afghanistan in his Eid message published on his Twitter on Thursday. He pointed out that discussions about identity and ethnic issues have been strengthened by profiteers and forced migrations.
“Instead of confronting the Taliban’s stranglehold, Afghanistan is being led towards an identity crisis by some people either intentionally or unintentionally,” Ashraf Ghani said.
Ghani said that the roots of this crisis lie in the “ideological ugliness of the last half-century,” and if it is not prevented, its damage will be long-term and dangerous. He urged the youth and women of the country to take control of the situation and manage the identity issues.
The former president of Afghanistan highlighted that forced migrations have weakened the sense of belonging to the common homeland and given opportunists a chance to make personal use of it in the name of “ethnicity.” He emphasised that the connection of the Afghanistan people with the historical identity and the single homeland is the common pride of all, which can only be embodied in being a citizen of Afghanistan.
Ghani pointed out that the history and common identity of the Afghan people are under attack from various sources, and the ruling group is harming it more than others. “The Taliban are destroying everything that is the national and shared pride of the people,” he said.
He also attributed the Taliban to an ethnic minority called “tyranny” and emphasised that the group’s actions are wrongly attributed to the Pashtuns. Ashraf Ghani claims that the Taliban defame Pashtuns and other ethnic groups by attributing restrictions on women’s education and work to their “culture”.
According to Ghani, the Taliban have imposed restrictions on women’s work in NGOs through special calculations to isolate the country and practically completed the process of excluding women from social and economic life.
He added that poverty is rampant in the country while the Taliban leaders have become the richest people by illegally stealing national revenues and smuggling weapons and drugs.
In his message, Ghani mentioned the worsening of the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and stated that so far, only humanitarian aid has prevented a full-scale crisis. He added that due to the dire humanitarian situation, it must have been proven that the Taliban are incapable of managing the country’s economy.
