(JustPatriots.com)- The senior U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan has issued an apology for saying that the #BlackGirlMagic social media campaign may serve as motivation for Afghan women in their fight against Taliban persecution.
Karen Decker, the U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Afghanistan, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that sometimes, our best intentions go poorly because we haven’t listened enough or don’t completely understand others’ lived experiences.
She said she had been making an effort to honor black women during black history month. If she insulted or wounded anybody, “please accept my sincere apologies.”
Several influential people on social media were angered by a tweet from Decker this week because they felt it trivialized the plight of Afghan women, whose liberties have been curtailed since the Taliban retook control in 2021.
Women are prohibited from working in most fields, denied access to public spaces like parks and gyms, and even required to hide their faces in public.
That was one of Decker’s few tweets in which she mentioned both Black History Month and the situation of women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
She was also met with some criticism from inside the Biden administration, which has been panned for its departure from Afghanistan and subsequent handling of the problem.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the Department of State, said during a briefing on Wednesday that Decker wrote the tweets and did not have approval from higher-ups.
Price acknowledged that there were some “appreciable sentiments” in the Twitter thread in question. Certainly not the kind of message they’d put out, and he found it to be really inappropriate and ineffectual in the context.
The apology was sent on Thursday, but it came too late for some.
There are now millions of people without work and on the verge of hunger in Afghanistan, creating a catastrophic humanitarian catastrophe that the harsh winter has only worsened.
