An Afghan journalist who feared death treads and fled to Pakistan now wants to sell his kidney to cope with the serious economic challenges he is plagued with.
Sami Jahesh, an Afghan Journalist currently residing in Pakistan Tuesday said on Twitter ‘I have no money, no food to eat, no other option, but to sell my kidney’.
Jahesh took on Twitter by posting one of his pictures and WhatsApp number, asking people who need kidney to directly contact him.
Prior to the recent regime change in Afghanistan, Jahesh used to work for Aryana News, a private broadcasting channel in Afghanistan. After the Taliban seized power in August 2021, he fled to Pakistan fearing death threats and persecution under the Taliban regime.
According to his relatives, Jahesh was bitten and harassed by the de facto authorities of Afghanistan a couple of times. Many Afghan journalists who fled the Taliban regime, now live in desperation and uncertainty in Pakistan and other neighboring counties.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021, thousands of Afghans migrated to the neighboring countries. A large group of journalists, human rights activists, and civil society members also left the country for fear of persecution and killing by the ruling regime.
Many Afghan journalists and human rights activists expected to be transferred from the neighboring countries to one of the refugee-accepting states still remain in Pakistan and Iran and are struggling with grave economic challenges.
Groups of Afghan journalists have already protested and called on organizations supporting journalists, however, they have been long forgotten and left in complete desperation in Pakistan.
The late regime change in Afghanistan has had negative impacts on the living conditions of people from different walks of life. Journalists, human rights activists, civil society members, minority groups, and women and girls have been marginalized from public life under the Taliban-run administration.
