Angelina Jolie takes to Instagram to share an emotional letter of a young Afghan woman

Known for her humanitarian work, actress-filmmaker Angelina Jolie has tried to bring to notice the plight of women in Afghanistan through her new post on social media. 

Jolie took to her Instagram handle on Saturday and shared a personal letter she received from a young woman in the country. 

The letter was blurred out to not reveal the girl's identity. Jolie began the caption of her post by writing, "A young woman in #Afghanistan sent me this letter. I'm protecting her identity, but she hasn't been able to go back to school since the Taliban seized power."

Noting that women in Afghanistan are "being arrested simply for taking part in peaceful protests," Jolie said the young girl wrote, "I might never be able to go outside again or even be able to speak as I am a girl."

She then shared another extract from the young woman's letter. "I feel like women don`t have any right to speak or put their word forward," the unidentified female wrote to the actress. 

"The rights of the woman are taken away from them and they are not allowed to do anything in the country," she added.

The woman who wrote the letter to Jolie then detailed an instance from a "few weeks back when the Taliban arrested two of the women who raised their voices in order to ask for the rights of woman and freedom."

Expressing that the instance left her shocked and dismayed, the woman said, "I just thought, that this is the end."
In her caption, the actress urged fans to keep track of what is happening in the country."Please track what is happening in Afghanistan, where young women are being taken from their homes at night at gunpoint and disappeared, and new restrictions are being imposed on the freedom of women and girls day by day."

"Please help ensure they're not forgotten," Jolie concluded her post, which also highlighted women's rights activists who are "missing" in Afghanistan.

These included Alia Azizi, Parwana Ibrahimkhel, Mursal Ayar, and Zahra Mohammadi, Tamana Zaryab Paryani and her three sisters.

On Monday, Jolie shared works of two female Aghan artists- Shamsia Hassani and Rada Akbar. Jolie, who admires the work of both the artists, wanted to honour  Afghan women and 'their struggle for equality and dignity and freedom.'

This isn't the first time that Jolie has used her social media page to draw attention to the plight of women in Afghanistan. The star had made her debut in July 2021, and had shared a  different letter from another young woman who expressed her fears for the future after the Taliban had taken over Afghanistan.

In the letter, the young unidentified woman detailed how she and many others were living in fear, expressing "all our dreams are gone."

In response, Jolie, who is a former UN goodwill ambassador, and has worked with refugees in past years, noted that she would remain active in her fight to aid the Afghan women, "Like others who are committed, I will not turn away. I will continue to look for ways to help. And I hope you'll join me."