‘If a new vision of Afghanistan’s future is ever to emerge, the country’s dreamers must survive’
More than 350 arts professionals have added their signatures to an open letter demanding that the US government recognise Afghan arts workers as at-risk individuals and eligible for evacuation.
The statement – titled ‘Open letter from Arts for Afghanistan’, and which can be read here – calls for the US government to include artists, filmmakers, performers and writers on evacuation lists: ‘like Afghan journalists, activists, and citizens who have assisted the US, cultural workers face threats to their lives because of the work they’ve done – and they are unlikely to get out of the country without immediate changes to Washington’s approach to granting visas and providing flights,’ they write.
‘Even before the Taliban’s takeover, cultural workers took grave risks in depicting the experiences and articulating the aspirations of Afghans, with the encouragement – and, often, direct support – of the US government. Now, the vocation of truth-telling has become much more dangerous, and many of our peers see no choice but to leave the country.’
The letter also calls on the US government to remove quotas for Afghan refugees and to permanently halt deportations of Afghan refugees, while keeping Kabul airport open for chartered, commercial and humanitarian flights to operate under US protection. Signatories include Claire Bishop, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Hal Foster, Coco Fusco, Hari Kunzru, Walid Raad, Hank Willis Thomas and Michael Rakowitz.
‘Destroying art and artists has never been incidental to the Taliban’s project. In fact, doing so is at the very foundation of the Taliban’s claim to legitimate power, which is based on a vision of Afghanistan as only ever having been a monoethnic, monotheistic society. Afghanistan’s cultural heritage undermines the Taliban’s claim to power and contradicts the underlying vision. But if a new vision of Afghanistan’s future is ever to emerge, the country’s dreamers must survive,’ the letter concludes.
