A year ago, the world cautiously welcomed 2021. The year 2021 was going to be a year of health and a review of humanity’s life and lifestyle in previous centuries.
The breakout of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 reminded humanity that, if life is going to persist on this earth, we need to change our lifestyle. Respect for live beings, safeguarding the environment and planning for improvement in climate conditions were all put on the agenda of governments and smaller communities.
But the economic troubles caused by shutting down of businesses meant that the profiteers once more looked for an easy buck. To exploit live animals whose rights are shackled by humans has done so much injustice to wildlife.
Humanity was quick in attempting to escape the coronavirus, accelerate economic growth and re-open businesses; but it delayed getting effective help to people around the world and in poor countries.
The coronavirus vaccine, and its many variants, became a scene of contrast between the rich and the poor, the developed and backward countries, the first and the third world. A direct result of unjust distribution of the vaccine was the rise of new mutated variants, the Omicron being the latest.
Humanity enters 2022 as the slightly-eased movement regulations, which led to much traveling in the summer, are getting toughened up again and the third dose is now mandated.
When we look at the catastrophe that happened, we can easily predict the fourth dose and the new vaccines in the coming days and months.
In poorer continents, and the so-called Third World countries, access to the vaccine remains difficult. In the other side of the world, people of the richer countries, go to street protests against getting vaccinated.
In the 21st century, amongst the industrial countries, where people have easy access to standard education and mass media, the spread of conspiracy theories, superstition and fake information (which leads to many not wanting to get vaccinated) is another problem for Western statesmen.
It was scientific progress that allowed humanity to overcome the destructive diseases of the middle ages and find a treatment for cholera, plague, trachoma, leprosy, smallpox, whooping cough (pertussis), polio and other dangerous infectious diseases. Vaccines were instrumental in the fight against them.
But our challenge is now similar to when, around 100 years ago, humanity was concerning itself with vaccines for polio or cholera.
The growth in the earth population means that we will face problems in providing drinking water and adequate food which will also mean more potential for increase of environmental pollution and exploitation of live beings. I haven’t even spoken yet about social injustice; surely unprecedented population growth will also provide challenges for providing life opportunities for all and control of infectious diseases in the next few decades.
As 2022 starts, we need to repeat what we said last year: ignoring health advice, ignoring the right to life of other species on earth and ignoring the right to life of humans can become the biggest threat for survival of human beings.
The coronavirus pandemic showed how vulnerable humanity is; against unknown threats that can easily come to engulf billions and push the world to darkness.
I am now half-way into my article and there are many grand events of 2021 I haven’t spoken about yet.
As a woman from the East, for me, the largest political event of the past year was actions of the US President Joe Biden who, working hand in hand with the corrupt and treacherous government of Ashraf Ghani, gave up Afghanistan and her people to the terrorists of Taliban.
Afghans were thrown to the wolves. An honorable, suffering and wronged people were now to be governed by the most criminal and primitive of contemporary groups.
How can we ever forget the disastrous images of the US forces exiting Afghanistan? Or the chaos at the Kabul Airport, symbolic of millions who wanted to escape a bitter fate under the Taliban? We will forever remember the face of desperate human beings who clung to the airplane wheels; the tragedy of this past summer, the explosion and carnage in Kabul airport.
The world does remember these scenes. But everyday problems, new troubles in life, kids getting back to school, the new booster shot and other daily troubles made people forget. But for the people of the region, especially for Afghans themselves, this painful wound is still fresh.
Biden decided to act on the deal that the previous president, Donald Trump, had made. In other words, Biden used an opportunity provided for him by Trump: to show that, before the 2022 midterms, he will do one big act, that is the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.
The US preferred to deal with a crisis of less than half a million Afghans as opposed to spending more time to face the Taliban and control the situation. To reach its goal of an unplanned withdrawal, the US sacrificed the Afghans.
The mountain-dwelling groups who have now descended upon Kabul and other cities from prehistoric caves are taking and burning all they can. They’ve drenched many of the youth in blood.
The grand crime continues in Afghanistan; a result of the failed policies of Biden and treason by the fleeing Afghan president and his failed administration.
Having seen the fall of Taliban in 2001, I would have never imagined to see their return to power.
Amongst the Afghan people, "bisarneveshti," which means to be without a fate, is a common word. Now I understand it. I look at all that they could achieve but didn’t. They truly are a people without a fate.
The terrible conditions of women and non-Pashtun people, and the terror with which this regressive group is ruling all over the country, is hard to believe. With much regret, we have to admit that the human and economic crisis over Afghanistan will only intensify.
The United States has received a massive blow to its standing. What happened in Afghanistan — to put it more simply, how the US allowed Afghanistan to fall to Taliban — means that Washington’s standing is incurably hurt in the eyes of the world.
From Iran, whose people looked for US to help for years, to the Arab countries of the region, who have strategic and security ties with the US, all now know that they can’t rely on it.
The exemplary sympathy between the peoples of Iran and Afghanistan is part of this picture. It speaks to our shared mother tongue, history and common attachments. The Taliban were Mongol-like invaders who came from the depth of darkness of history to overrun Balkh, Herat and mountains and valleys of Panjshir to hurt the rich civilization and culture of this honorable land.
Centuries ago, a year before the Mongol invasions, Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Rumi fled the city of Balkh with his wise father. Thus, the great poet Rumi survived the calamity. We can compare this to the migrations of Afghan people out of their lands. Each of these migrants can be a wellspring of knowledge and wisdom who, in the near future, will be able to come back to their lands and once more make it flourish.
And for my good people, my fellow Iranians, not only the past year, but no year under the rule of the mullahs has brought calm or prosperity. In 2021, economic troubles once more put pressure on Iranians and the unaffordable cost of living led to new records.
The rulers have tried to make the Iranians get used to difficult conditions. But the more they try, the more they fail. They are not popular and their policies are also not approved by the people.
Popular uprisings around the country speak of deep and wide-ranging social and economic malaise. When we look at the conditions of the country under the Pahlavis and compare it with today’s reign of the Islamic Republic, not to mention prosperity and development in neighboring countries, the need for a fundamental transformation and overcoming this ideological government becomes clearer by the day.
The desire for change is easy in words but difficult in practice. The course of events in the past year, as I recounted, shows that, from Iran to Afghanistan, fundamental change must come from national will.
The rulers of the Islamic Republic have shown that they not only don’t know how to run a country, but they are unable to show sympathy with their own people .
At the height of the Afghan debacle, despite the national sentiments of Iranians, despite their widespread sympathy with the Valley of Panjshir, which was resisting under siege by Taliban, the Islamic regime of Iran didn’t lift a finger to help. But the common pain of both countries brought them closer to each other.
This was a reminder of the deep historical ties that exist not only only between the peoples of Iran and Afghanistan but between Iranians and other countries of their neighborhood. In difficult days, this feelings are renewed.
Let me end with a rich verse of poetry from the first pages of Rumi’s Masnavi:
Everyone who is left far from his sources,
Wishes back the time when he was united with it.
