Afghan Quotes

• In the Afghan people, I found the most resilient, welcoming people who, for the first time in my career, never judged me over my right to tell this story - as a woman or a foreigner. A people who cherish their culture and history and the films that have captured that culture.

  Pietra Brettkelly

  Careers, People, Culture

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• If we can't understand the Afghan family, we can't understand Afghanistan.

  Asne Seierstad

  Afghanistan, Ifs

  "Bookseller of Kabul author Åsne Seierstad: 'It's not possible to write a neutral story'". Interview with Amelia Hill, www.theguardian.com. July 30, 2010.

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• A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Chance, Splendid, Thousand

  Twitter post from Jun 28, 2015

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• Marriage can wait, education cannot.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Inspirational, Marriage, School

  Twitter post from Jan 11, 2015

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• Protecting Afghan civilians is the cornerstone of our mission.

  John R. Allen

  Missions, Cornerstones, Civilians

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• Our presence in Afghanistan is not worth the price of any more American lives or treasure.

  Camille Paglia

  Treasure, Afghanistan, American Life

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• Hospitality is one of the things the Afghan population is famous for, but nobody says that anymore. Now they're terrorists - and they're not. They're people.

  Lisa Ling

  People, Population, Hospitality

  "Interview: Sonia Kennebeck, Ines Hofmann Kanna, & Lisa Ling on Giving Wings to 'National Bird'". Interview with Stephen Saito, moveablefest.com. November 16, 2016.

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• ‎I know you're still young but I want you to understand and learn this now. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You're a very very bright girl. Truly you are. You can be anything you want Laila. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated Laila. No chance.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Girl, War, Smart

  Khaled Hosseini (2010). “The Complete Khaled Hosseini: Digital box set”, p.242, A&C Black

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• We've been able to build up the Afghan security forces and stabilize it.

  Barack Obama

  Able, Force, Security

  Source: abcnews.go.com

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• To understand Afghanistan, you have to face the stress the average Afghan deals with.

  Hyder Akbar

  Stress, Average, Faces

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Without women taking an active role in Afghan society, rebuilding Afghanistan is going to be very difficult.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Roles, Rebuilding, Difficult

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• The Afghan "negotiation phase" immediately precedes the traditional Afghan "surrender phase." This entails the following: The defeated party surrenders and then comes out shooting. This is repeated several times. Finally, the vanquished party runs out of ammunition and is forced to surrender ' but seriously this time ' at which point the victors kill the foreigners and hug their fellow Afghans like long-lost brothers.

  Ann Coulter

  Running, Brother, Party

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• It's being made out that the whole point of the war was to topple the Taliban regime and liberate Afghan women from their burqas, we are being asked to believe that the U.S. marines are actually on a feminist mission.

  Arundhati Roy

  War, Believe, Marine

  Arundhati Roy (2016). “The End of Imagination”, p.240, Haymarket Books

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• If the story had been about anyone else, it would been dismissed as laaf, that Afghan tendency to exaggerate ---sadly, almost a national affliction; if someone bragged that his son was a doctor, chances were the kid had once passed a biology test in high school.

  Khaled Hosseini

  School, Kids, Son

  Khaled Hosseini (2011). “The Kite Runner: Rejacketed”, p.11, A&C Black

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• Seeing the Afghan women in their burqas, it's easy to say, "Well, they're not as fully aware as I am, so why do I have to worry so much about their plight?" But that's a misunderstanding. They are brutally aware of their station.

  Eliza Griswold

  Worry, Plight, Easy

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  Breakup, Regret, War

  "The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan". Le Nouvel Observateur Interview, www.globalresearch.ca. January, 1998.

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• Images of burning Red Cross and UN buildings struck by US bombs contrasted with images of thousands of desperately poor Afghan women carrying sickly and starving children out of Afghanistan as they flee the might of the US military is tearing at international public confidence in our war against terrorism.

  Cynthia McKinney

  Children, Military, War

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• The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens.

  David Petraeus

  Iran, Citizens, Want

  "Meet the Press" with David Gregory, www.realclearpolitics.com. August 15, 2010.

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• Since 1996, the Feminist Majority Foundation has been immersed in a campaign to support Afghan women and girls in their fight against the brutal oppression of the Taliban.

  Eleanor Smeal

  Girl, Fighting, Support

  "Why Is the Feminist Majority Foundation Refusing to Abandon the Women and Girls of Afghanistan?". www.alternet.org. July 16, 2009.

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• I myself had to grow a longer beard and Afghan clothes. I was in danger of being kidnapped by smugglers, though I didn't know it at the time.

  Mohsen Makhmalbaf

  Clothes, Smugglers, Beard

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• We as the Afghan people and government are willing to help Pakistan work for peace in Afghanistan and work for peace in Pakistan, together.

  Hamid Karzai

  Government, People, Together

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• The majority of the Afghan people support a strategic partnership with the United States.

  Hamid Karzai

  People, Support, Majority

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• Afghan society is very complex, and Afghanistan has a very complex culture. Part of the reason it has remained unknown is because of this complexity.

  Mohsen Makhmalbaf

  Culture, Reason, Afghanistan

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• And across Afghanistan, every single day, Afghan soldiers, Afghan police and ISAF troops are serving shoulder-to-shoulder in some very difficult situations. And our engagement with them, our shoulder-to-shoulder relationship with them, our conduct of operations with them every single day defines the real relationship.

  John R. Allen

  Real, Difficult Situations, Soldier

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• The Soviet Union was brought down by a strange global coalition of Western European conservatives, Eastern European nationalists, Russian liberals, Chinese communists, and Afghan Islamic reactionaries, to name only a few. Many of these discordant groups disliked the United States intensely. But Americans were able to mobilize them to direct their ire at the Soviet Union first.

  David Frum

  War, Islamic, Names

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