In a morning briefing on Afghanistan, Maryam Monsef, Canada’s Minister for Women and Gender Equality called the Taliban her “brothers” and asked them to allow Canadians to get to the Kabul airport in order to leave the country. After facing heavy criticism, Monsef is defending herself on the grounds that she used “brothers” in a cultural context.
As a Canadian who moved to this country as an Afghan refugee, I want to be very clear, there is no cultural context in which calling the Taliban “brothers” is acceptable. Words carry meaning, and meanings imply moral positions.
