Tears of an Afghan girl facing a grim future under Taliban rule goes viral as UN Secretary-General warns of women's rights being 'ripped away' from them

An Afghan girl cries in a viral video — Afghan women and girls fear for their future as large parts of their country falls under Taliban rule.
Masih Alinejad

An emotional video of a tearful Afghan girl has gone viral on Twitter.
The girl faces an uncertain, and likely grim, future as the Taliban gains control of large parts of Afghanistan.
UN Secretary-General has warned that the "hard-won rights" of Afghan women are being "ripped away" from them.
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As large swathes of Afghanistan fall to the Taliban at an alarming speed, a video showing a "hopeless Afghan girl" crying about her grim future has gone viral on Twitter.

"We don't count because we were born in Afghanistan," the unidentified girl says through tears in the 45-second clip.

-Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) August 13, 2021

"No one cares about us," the girl continues. "We'll die slowly in history," she adds.

The emotive video, which now has over 440,000 views, was first shared by human rights activist Masih Alinejad. "My heart breaks for women of Afghanistan," she wrote in a post accompanying the clip. "The world has failed them."

Under the previous period of Taliban rule, Afghan women were not allowed to work, study, or be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone. Those who violated the misogynistic laws faced imprisonment, public flogging, and even execution.

Following the Taliban's ousting from power in 2001, the international community worked to open schools for girls and allow women to return to work.

Now that the Taliban has seized 18 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals and controls more than two-thirds of the country, Afghan women once again fear for their future.

"I cannot stop thinking and worrying about my friends, my neighbors, my classmates, all the women in Afghanistan," an unnamed female journalist in Afghanistan told The Guardian.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the Taliban is already imposing severe restrictions on women's human rights in the areas currently under their control.

"It is particularly horrifying and heart-breaking to see reports of the hard-won rights of Afghan girls and women being ripped away from them," he added.

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