07 Aug “The Silent Suffering of Afghanistan and the Cruelty of Forced Deportations” – A Letter from Afghan Women
For more than forty years, Afghanistan has been the battleground for proxy wars, exploited by global and regional powers at the expense of its people. This long history of conflict has left the country devastated — physically, economically, and emotionally. Entire generations have grown up in war, poverty, and displacement, deprived of the basic right to live in dignity.
Yet the suffering of Afghans has not been limited to within their borders.
Throughout these four decades, neighboring countries, especially Iran, have treated Afghan refugees with ongoing cruelty and discrimination. Sadly, this has remained a largely ignored and unspoken issue on the international stage.
Afghans living and working in Iran have long been subjected to racism, abuse, and violence. Young Afghan boys working in construction were sometimes deliberately pushed from high-rise buildings — and no justice was ever served. Signs in public parks once read, “No Afghans and No Dogs Allowed” — a horrifying testament to the level of dehumanization. Sadly even a significant number of Iranian women treat Afghan families in a very abusive and racist way. They shout on them, call names and humiliate them in front of their children. Afghan workers have been denied rights, education, and basic protections, treated as disposable labor rather than fellow human beings.
This cruelty has reached new and unbearable levels in recent months.
After the Israeli attack on Iran, the Iranian regime used the accusation that Afghans were involved as a justification to launch a campaign of forced deportations. Thousands were rounded up and expelled — not just migrants, but families, children, the elderly, and pregnant women — many of whom had lived in Iran for years or even decades.
Entire families were ripped apart. Mothers and fathers were separated from their children. People were taken from their workplaces, even detained while buying bread, without being allowed to return home or collect their belongings. Their bank accounts were frozen or emptied. Many were deported with nothing — no clothes, no money, no documents. In the unbearable summer heat, they were left without food, water, shelter, or medical assistance. Some are now on the brink of death.
This is not deportation. It is state-sponsored cruelty. Refugees are not criminals. They are victims of war and injustice. No country has the right to punish them further or to strip them of their dignity.
We call on the United Nations, international human rights organizations, and all responsible governments to break their silence and take urgent action. These abuses must be condemned. Protection and humanitarian aid must be provided to the victims. And the long history of discrimination against Afghans in neighboring countries must be openly acknowledged and addressed.
Afghans have endured enough. Now is the time for justice, compassion, and solidarity.