Warina Hussain on Afghanistan crisis: This war and turmoil forced my family to flee 20 years ago

The visuals of people helpless and desperate to leave Afghanistan reminds actor Warina Hussain of her traumatic past, and revives ghastly memories of her family leaving the country in the middle of a turmoil.

“It’s a difficult time for me and my family. It’s eerily similar to 20 years ago. It was because of this war and turmoil that my family was forced to flee Afghanistan, and now, many years later, I see other families losing their homes,” Hussain says while talking about the ongoing crisis in the country after the Taliban took charge.

The actor left Afghanistan as a child, and has been in India for over a decade. But the memories of her time in the country continue to stay alive in her mind.

“My memories will always be of family picnics, food, and a beautiful spring in Kabul, which I doubt will ever be the same again; the only air one will now breathe will be of suppression,” she says in dismay.

As a refugee, she can understand how difficult it is to move from country to country in search of a better life.

“I was fortunate that India accepted me and became my home but I’m afraid that isn’t the case for everyone right now. Such a country’s conditions result in emergency immigration, resulting in thousands of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in neighbouring countries, where immediate accommodation may be difficult,” says the actor, who made her Bollywood debut with Loveyatri in 2018.

According to Hussain, the progress of all these years has gone in vain, with the country’s situation back to square one. “And with females going back to being just a machine for fertility and the mentalities of the youngsters full of hate and revenge,” she rues.

Now, she has just one appeal, and that’s for the other countries not to abandon Afghanistan at this difficult hour.

“And for the United Nations to intervene. It’s the wish and plea of a woman who doesn’t want her fellow Afghan women to be treated as second-class citizens in their own nation,” Hussain ends.