KABUL (Pajhwok): Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) or central bank on Wednesday organized a street photo exhibition in capital Kabul to press the United States to release Afghanistan’s assets.
The US government has frozen over $8 billion in assets of Afghanistan after the fall of the previous Afghan administration on August 15 last year, a move that drew reactions on national and international levels. The US then announced it would give $3 billion from the frozen money to the survivors of 9/11 attacks.
The Afghan assets were frozen by the US at a time when majority of Afghans are struggling with serious economic problems.
Today’s one-day exhibition was held near Zarnegar Park in Kabul city, in which 35 pieces of photos of historical sites of the country and the Afghan people from the capital and provinces were displayed.
The display mainly showed the situation of poverty and problems of the Afghan people.
ZirakMalia, who prepared all the images and is responsible for the exhibition, said the expo was organized by DAB in protest against the country’s frozen foreign exchange reserves by the United States.
He said that it was the first exhibition of its kind organized in a street after the fall of the previous regime.
“I have been working in photography for 20 years. The documentation and images that you see, we collected them from 20 provinces of Afghanistan, I wanted to show the situation of our society which is paid no attention by the international community, I was witness to these scenes and I am the photographer,” he added.
Malia called on the international community, particularly the US, to release the frozen money of Afghanistan by seeing the situation of Afghans in the displayed photos, which show poverty, suffering and aspirations of people.
Mirwais, one of the participants of the exhibition praised the organizers of the show, and said, “Our request to the United States is to unblock all the money of Afghanistan that so that the people can handle their daily activities.”
EhsanullahShahid, another participant of the exhibition, said that he visited the event to see the photos, which showed art and culture of people.
He said, “Our request to the government is to work on promoting our culture, a country whose culture and art are not praised, it would not develop.” He also called on the US to release the assets of the Afghan people.
mds/ma
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