Angelina Jolie ups her crusade in the fight to protect women

Los Angeles, California - Angelia Jolie used her social media platform this week to double down on her efforts to fight for women around the world.

Angelina Jolie (r.) took to Instagram several times this week to join worldwide protests (inset) for the endangered rights of Afghan women around the world.
Angelina Jolie (r.) took to Instagram several times this week to join worldwide protests (inset) for the endangered rights of Afghan women around the world.  © Collage: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire & NurPhoto

Before speaking on Wednesday with members of Congress in support of the Violence Against Women Act, Jolie geared up by sharing the plight of women overseas.

The star posted an excerpt on Instagram of a heart-wrenching letter from an Afghan woman earlier this week, which detailed the rights that are being taken away from women in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the country. Jolie said she received it from a young woman who hasn’t been able to go back to school since the Taliban took over in late August.

"I feel like women don’t have any right to speak or put their word forward," the letter reads, according to Jolie’s post.

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"The rights of the woman are taken away from them and they are not allowed to do anything in the country," the letter continued. "Few weeks back when the Taliban arrested 2 of the women who raised their voices in order to ask for the rights of woman and freedom, I just thought, that this is the end and I might never be able to go outside again or even be able to speak as I am a Girl."

Jolie, who didn’t share name of the letter’s author in order to protect her identity, urged her followers to help make sure women in Afghanistan are "not forgotten."

"Please track what is happening in Afghanistan, where young women are being taken from their homes at night at gunpoint and disappeared, and new restrictions are being imposed on the freedom of women and girls day by day,” the Oscar-winning actor wrote, with accompanying slides that named multiple women's rights activists who have gone missing in the country over the last few months.

In a follow-up post, Jolie featured the work of two female Afghan artists "in honor," she wrote, "of #Afghanwomen and their struggle for equality and dignity and freedom."

Jolie joined Instagram in August, when her first post ever was similarly a letter shared from an Afghan woman about her fear of the Taliban.

Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire & NurPhoto

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