‘I am sitting here waiting for them to come. I have nobody to help me or my family. I am just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for me and kill me,’ Zarifa Ghafari said after the militant group took over the country on Sunday. As Ashraf Ghani-led government officials fled, Zarifa Ghafari wondered: ‘Where would I go?’ As recently as a few weeks ago, Ghafari had expressed hope for a better future for Afghanistan in an interview with an international daily. However, her hopes were dashed on Sunday.
Ghafari became the first and youngest female mayor of the Maidan Wardak province in 2018, and now she and those like her look forward to the arrival of the Taliban. She had received death threats from the Taliban in the past. Just 20 days after the third attempt to kill her failed, her father General Abdul Wasi Ghafari was killed by the militants on 15 November last year. Ghafari was in charge of the welfare of soldiers and civilians injured in terror attacks in Kabul. When the Taliban started their takeover offensive, they stepped up their strategy.
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Three weeks ago, she told a media outlet, ‘Younger people are aware of what is happening. They are connected through social media. I think they will keep fighting for our rights’. Today, she feels helpless and is terrified for her life and the safety of her family. ‘We thought Kabul wouldn’t fall to the Taliban,’ she said.
Although the Taliban have promised not to retaliate against people or officials working with the previous Afghan government, their past history makes it difficult to trust them. It worries women in particular because in the past the Taliban prohibited women from studying, barred them from working, and meted out barbaric punishments to them under the guise of justice.
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