San Francisco Turns Out in Solidarity With Worldwide Protest for Afghan Lives
After Biden was informed of a US drone mission in eastern Afghanistan that the Pentagon said killed two members of Islamic State on Saturday, he promised further attacks on ISIS-K, the group responsible for the bombings in Kabul.
In the Bay Area, more than 200 protesters gathered in the UN Plaza, focusing on peace.
The event began with the organizers playing the song “Sarzamine Man,” also known as “My Homeland,” followed by several speakers including Mary Steiner, President of the United Nations Chapter of San Francisco, Nahid Aria, Dari- Translator and coordinator for Afghan operations with the Alameda District Attorney and Shahid Buttar, an attorney and candidate for California’s 12th Congressional District.
A solidarity protest marches down Market Street in San Francisco on Saturday, August 28, 2021. (Annelise Finney / KQED)
Aziza Popal, who attended the rally, said she fled Afghanistan on religious grounds many years ago because she was unable to practice Islam under the then rule of the Soviet Union. On Saturday she came to protest for voiceless people in her former home. “I am here to speak out on behalf of all men and women. We are very dismayed by what is happening in Afghanistan right now,” she said.
Marena Habibi, an organizer of the rally, said the thousands of refugees now entering the Bay Area may not receive food aid, cash aid or shelter, and urged protesters to seek more support from their representatives in the government. Afghans arriving in the United States can qualify for the state and state levels using a variety of legal terminology, and refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and probation officers are all eligible for a variety of programs and services.
“President Biden, you did not end the war, you created global chaos and we are now seeing the consequences,” she said. “These Afghans have been betrayed by the world and need help now.”
Protest organizers said the US-led war had disintegrated Afghan society. “Afghan citizens have no choice but to flee their homes or to stay and risk death from these forces,” the organizers wrote in a statement.
