Angelina Jolie Joins Instagram to Draw Attention to the Afghanistan Crisis

Angelia Jolie had managed to stay away from social media until  Friday, August 20th, when she made her Instagram debut to speak out against the Taliban inflicted atrocities in Afghanistan, especially against women and children.

Her viral first post was an image of a hand-written letter that she had received from a teenage girl who expressed her fears under the Taliban rule. In the caption Angelina wrote: “Right now, the people of Afghanistan are losing their ability to communicate on social media and to express themselves freely… “So I’ve come on Instagram to share their stories and the voices of those across the globe who are fighting for their basic human rights.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Angelina Jolie (@angelinajolie)

Within just 16 hours of sharing the post, she garnered over 4.6 million followers and counting. Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is one her of followers. Her post had more than 1,583,194 likes. Her account currently follows just three others: the NAACP, Doctor’s Without Borders and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Her Instagram bio reads: “Mom, filmmaker, Special Envoy for UN @refugees.”

“It is sickening to watch Afghans being displaced yet again out of the fear and uncertainty that has gripped their country,” Jolie wrote in the post. “Like others who are committed, I will not turn away. I will continue to look for ways to help. And I hope you’ll join me.”

Until now, Jolie has resisted joining social media. “I’m not on Facebook, and none of my [six] children are on Facebook. Nobody’s even asked to be,” she had said in a BBC Radio 4 interview in 2018. She also does not have an official Twitter account.