Tuesday Dec 05, 2023

Siam Pasarly: Escape from The Taliban

Siam Pasarly is lucky to be alive. Siam saw firsthand people hanging off of the wings Military plane desperate to escape Afghanistan when the Taliban retook the country. For those on the wrong list, escape was the only way to avoid imminent torture and execution.

Siam eventually did escape through a series of desperate measures evacuated just after the Taliban regained control of the country in 2021. He. Before then, Siam took a major risk of his own publishing ideas that went directly against the Taliban’s policies of keeping the masses uneducated and isolated.

Before the evacuation, Siam published a simple book called “How to Use the Internet,” which sparked a nationwide debate in a country where the use of the internet, technology, and all forms of media were banned as sinful and heresy. Siam became a local hero, but also got his name on the Taliban’s most wanted list of enemies against the state.

While deeply disturbed by the current political state of Afghanistan, Siam argues that fanatics are the problem… not Islam itself. Many aspects of Islam are misunderstood. Divorce is okay, he says, while cruelty, aggression and fighting are not. Strict codes of dress and other confining rules placed are a cultural deviation which upon women are a matter of culture rather not the core beliefs of religion.

In this episode, Bart digs into Siam’s handwriting to better understand this man with a remarkable story. Siam has an unusual signature and is quite unique for either culture.

Join us to hear his fascinating story, as told in his latest book “Escape from the Taliban,” is one of courage in the face of unfathomable circumstances and an indomitable quest for freedom and truth. Rage in the face of unfathomable circumstances and an indomitable quest for freedom and truth.

Quotes

“I’m sure you might remember the scenario of the airplanes–when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan. There were people that were hanging off the back of the airplane and couldn’t get on. You saw the people there on the side of the airplane. You saw that for some of the people, there was no space on the airplane, and they hung on the airplane tires here and there. When the airplane took off, people fell. That really happened. I was there.” (1:33 | Siam Pasarly)

“At that time, I was between two and eleven years old. We had been told that using technology was ‘haram’ in Islam–it’s illegal. You should not watch TV, you should not take pictures, you should not use the internet. It was banned.” (4:46 | Siam Pasarly)

“Quran, Islam–is very different to the perception that people have. Quran and Islam are solid, very normal, in favor of development, science, it’s all about beauty, beauty of life, unity, using our natural resources, everything that you have.” (6:26 | Siam Pasarly)

“Well, who needs an ID to vote and stuff? If you have IDs, you can vote. If you can vote, you can have a democracy. If you have democracy, then people would have an opinion, and then the old men in charge who want to have 17 wives who can’t read don’t get what they want.” (9:14 | Bart Baggett)

“I love my religion and I believe in choice. You love someone, someone loves you, and you say ‘I want to marry you,’ and she says, ‘I want to marry you,’ go. If you don’t like that lady after ten years, after two years, after three years, ‘We cannot live together, baby, let’s leave, let’s divorce, you go find someone that you love, I will go find someone that I love,’ this is your right.” (12:57 | Siam Pasarly)