I Believe Peace Is Possible On Afghan Soil – OpEd

As far as I know, peace is a fundamental human right for all – anywhere and everywhere and sadly there is no peace in Afghanistan. I come back to the idea that peace is possible for Afghan nation; for two reasons. First, it is a fundamental human right – we all prosper when we have peace. Secondly, it is part of the nature to live and work peacefully. I am not naive; however, I am optimistic instead because it is the right thing to voice for – peace for all.

My journey as a global citizen didn’t just happen overnight to be believe that peace is possible. It took me a over a decade to voice my concerns for a peaceful Afghanistan, all in the background and alongside my family and through international outreach work.

You see, I believe in peace and freedom all under one umbrella and that is a new world order. With the rapid technological revolution and as the baby boomers become more aware about real and stable peace, then the idea of new world order starts to make a lot of sense.

That order comes from the United Nations, a reputable entity which includes peace as part of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the SDGs. This makes me optimistic because already there is a mechanism (SDGs) in place to work towards reaching the goal of peace.

You see, we have suffered over three decades of war; first by the Soviet Union (also known as Russia), followed by the United States, their Operation Freedom, and now by the Taliban insurgents. I echo the Afghan peoples’ voice – “We just want to live in peace, so let us be”.

To be frank, it is hard to say, but picking up a gun and killing people is not a solution. It is rather a menace crime against all of humanity that will be forever recorded as a bad deed as per different scripture interpretation including the Christianity and Islam.

It makes me wonder what on earth is happening in Palestine as on television all we see and hear is about innocent people dying. This is a menace crime against all of humanity. Sadly, I can relate to this war in Palestine because as an Afghan, we’ve experienced the same thing not once but multiple times.

I also heard that there was a recent call for a ceasefire by a Canadian political party for Palestine especially during this holy month of fasting (Ramadan), which is a month of fasting from early morning until evening for 30 days followed by Eid celebration on the last day. This faced an obstacle in the political circles in Canada. Sadly, the Israelian side, also didn’t fully uphold to their promise of ceasefire. This raises the question, when will the war come to an end? Who will intervene from the outside to use their international diplomacy experience for the sake of peace in Palestine and Afghanistan? It remains to be seen that Canada is hesitant and may continue to be neutral on this front. All we see is that they support Israel government but still there is no clear indication for the time being on how Canada feels about ceasefire in Palestine and what would that look like in the future.

Meanwhile, The Afghani Taliban don’t want peace and neither does Hezbollah both of which are terrorist entities as per the United States foreign designated organization list. However, here’s the issue; after fighting with the Americans fought hard with Taliban for many years, they finally reached a so-called peace agreement on paper and up to now, none of the criteria set in the agreement has been met. So, will the Hezbollah and fighters be recognized as peace players also? If so, we will of course see a reduction in civilian casualties as we see now in Afghanistan; but we will question the kind of peace that the Palestinians and/or Afghans desire. 

You see, peace is not just an agreement on paper – it is a goal – and reaching that seems to be an obstacle as the case is for Afghanistan. Therefore, real peace and stability for all is possible especially in Afghanistan and Palestine – it is the one and only option to save humanity from dying. 

In the end, the imagery of dying resonates with me and with many others because the voices say they too want to live in peace (the same way that we all want peace for ourselves and our families) – it is a matter of urgency for the international community to make peace a priority on the international stage as now they haven’t done so. As part of the world agenda, it allows them to put peace into action without regrets in the future.