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Eid al-Adha in distressed Afghanistan |
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Written by Hamit Kara & Yusuf Altun
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Tuesday, 27 November 2007 |
We are glad to enjoy the happiness of Eid al-Adha in Afghanistan, a country that established itself in the Turkish public opinion after its legendary fight, called “Afghan Jihad,” against the Soviet occupation.
The 30-year long war, chaos and finally occupation changed the country to a great extent. All that happened within three decades turned Afghanistan into an impoverished country.
Despite the large-scale developments in the 21st century, you cannot find everything in Afghanistan that is available in Turkey. Cellular phones are almost the only technological invention offered to the Afghan people. Afghanistan and other underdeveloped countries must be great markets for the countries that produce cellular phones. The capital city of Kabul is provided with power and water only four and two hours respectively. The widespread use of cellular phones is noteworthy in a country with such conditions. Afghanistan is in absolute need of investment primarily in education, power production, road building, water supply systems, infrastructure, industry, urbanization, health services, food production and many other fields.
Eid al-Adha with a victimized nation
It was pleasing to experience Eid al-Adha, a blessing from God with which He taught us “sharing,” with the Afghan people. We met our brothers waiting for us in the city of Dahar after a six-hour long journey from Kabul. We spent the night there and headed for the region where we would carry out sacrificial slaughters the following day. We reached there after a tiresome land journey that lasted for five hours. After meeting with the people whose house we were going to stay at, we decided to take a rest. It was Eid al-Adha in Afghanistan, while it was Eve of Eid in Turkey.
We followed the Afghan tradition and performed Eid prayers at 10 a.m. After celebrating each other’s Eid, we brought the sacrificial animals to the place where they would be slaughtered and made necessary preparations. Their eyes were covered, God was exalted saying God is Great and they were slaughtered. Hereby sacrificial slaughter was carried out.
The large crowd that gathered around us showed how huge was the number of people in need of help. Children were looking into our eyes as if saying “Is there anything for us?” We gave them the presents we brought from Turkey. Their happiness added to our happiness. Sacrificial slaughters were completed on the second day of Eid.
We visited a refugee camp in the city of Mazar al-Sharif the following day and held talks with authorities about the situation in the camp. We noted down the needs of the camp and delivered food packages to the refugees.
Afghan people hopeless
To draw a clear picture of Afghanistan we chatted with locals here. Later we returned to Kabul and observed the conditions of the capital. The city is in a deplorable situation. Students are being taught at the buildings that were damaged during the war. Roads and streets are covered in dust and are in a bad condition except those in central areas. Long wars are blamed for the current situation of the country. People are making daily plan; they are hopeless about everything and take pleasure from nothing.
What is worse is that the US-backed Afghan government is not exerting any effort to improve the situation of Afghanistan and the Afghan people. The people we talked to claimed that the government was abusing power for their economical interests. Locals believe that the occupying forces want to control drug trafficking and get the lion’s share from the revenues.
Protection of what is rebuilt is a problem and cause of worry since stability causes the destruction of what is rebuilt.
IHH reaches 24,000 Afghans in Eid al-Adha
Despite all hardship, we as the officials of the IHH extended aid to 3,411 families, around 23,880 people, as part of the IHH 2006-2007 Qurban Project in Afghanistan, which is estimated to have a population of 30,000 million people. We took greetings of Turkish citizens to the Afghan people; pleased the young; asked for the prayers of the old and needy. May God accept the sacrificial slaughters of donators and help IHH in its activities. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 November 2007 )
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