Hundreds of Afghans gathered in front of the White House Sunday to ask President Joe Biden to act in response to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Frustrated protesters chanted, “Biden, you betrayed us!”
The protest focused on Pakistan and demanded, “an end to Pakistan’s funding of the Taliban and their proxy war waged against Afghanistan and its innocent citizens,” by placing sanctions on Pakistan. Protesters were also frustrated with the Biden administration and blamed Biden for the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan.
Even though Biden is on an extended vacation at Camp David, protesters targeted chants at the president.
“You sold out our people!” they yelled. “Biden, you betrayed us! We will not trust you! You abandon allies! You made a deal and sold out Afghanistan!”
Women’s rights were a primary concern for the protesters as women were not able to receive an education or work outside of the home under previous Taliban rule.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC Sunday women will be able to go to school and work, but must “observe the hijab, that is it,” but reports from Afghanistan tell a much different story as women are being denied entry to schools and many are too afraid to leave their homes to work.
The Taliban also reportedly has been abducting girls as young as twelve, and forcing them to become “sex slaves.”
One speaker said she was 10 years old when the Taliban placed a bomb in front of her school. She said, “Our women deserve educations. No child should be facing bombs.”
Criticizing Biden, the speaker continued, “You left another generation. You left another generation. Shame on you!”
Other protesters were concerned about global security with the Taliban in power. One protester said, “A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is an international threat.”
Protester Aria Azizi told Breitbart News, “I’m here to fight for my country, and ask for justice for all of the Afghans that have died.”
In frustration, she asked Biden, “Why? Why can’t you fight for our country? Why did you have to sell our country to the Taliban?”
Another protester, Manizha said, “We are here to raise our voice for our people, who are dying on a daily basis for nothing, for women’s rights, for the democracy we fought for years, and now, we just lost it overnight.”
Manizha told Breitbart News she doesn’t want Biden to leave Afghanistan, “We need our allies more than any time… This is the time we need the world to stand by us.”
The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban took place much more quickly than the Biden Administration anticipated. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in June, “I don’t think it’s going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday.” Blinken apparently is correct in that the fall was not from a Friday to a Monday, but from a Friday to a Sunday.
The chaotic pullout has led some to draw parallels to the Vietnam War, calling the situation “Biden’s Saigon.” The Wall Street Journal even dubbed it, “Saigon on Steroids.”