It's TED Talks Daily. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Sadly, so many people around the world live at risk of war, upending their lives, or are going through tumult this very moment.

Today, writer and refugee rights advocate, Zarlaas to Limezai, recounts the risks we undertake as humanity

when the war industry perpetuates. And she shares ways we can demand more to protect the safety

and dignity of one another. We recorded this talk at TED Women in December 2021, and it's only

become more relevant with the onset of war in Ukraine.

I was born during a war that still engulfs my country, Afghanistan.

When I was growing up, violence was all around me.

I remember sitting in my living room with my family when a distant thud would jerk us all out of our seats.

As the sound of the rockets came closer and closer, our bodies would coil and freeze.

My grandmother would take charge of her terrified flock and shepherdess into a room in the back of the house. No less exposed, but to us it somehow felt safer.

I cling to my granny and clenched my fists wondering why this was happening to us. I clearly remember my little

brother's face wincing every time we heard a rocket fall. It was this violence, this war that

still goes on today, which forced my family to leave our home. We left early one morning, not knowing

where we would end up. Along the way, there was more violence. We drove on roads with landmines,

and everywhere we went, there was hostility. The overriding memory in my body of those years is of feeling unsafe.

Feeling as though something terrible would happen to me or to my family. We worried about our friends

and family back home. My grandmother was still in Kabul, and I missed her

terribly. I'd go to bed at night and say the prayers she taught me to pray for her safety.

We wanted nothing more than to go back home, but when the Taliban took over the country in 1996, my parents realized that

was no longer an option. So after four years of living in exile, we sought asylum in the UK

and began a new life. I started going to school. And almost 25 years later, I'm standing here with you.

I'm now working to help others overcome devastation by war, to overcome the trauma of being expendable.

...