Zarifa Ghafari, one of the first female mayors of Afghanistan, survived three Taliban attacks. Now she has fled to Germany.
Kabul – Maidan Shahr, a city of 35,000, is located around 45 kilometers from the capital Kabul in Afghanistan. In 2018, 27-year-old Afghan Zarifa Ghafari was mayor here until the Taliban took power. They gave the young woman an ultimatum: either she would vacate office or her family would be killed.
She survived three Taliban attacks – her father was murdered by the militia. “I’m waiting for you to come and get me,” she told the British newspaper i. “I can’t leave my family alone. And even if I do, where should I go? “
Afghanistan: Ghafari flees before Taliban stop airlift
Now Ghafari gave an interview on itv News. As she reports there, she managed to escape. On the way to the airport in Kabul, she hid in the footwell of a vehicle. “When a Taliban checkpoint came, my husband would pull a large bag over my head so that they couldn’t see that anyone was there,” Ghafari said.
Getting on the plane was worse for her than the feeling of losing her father. “I miss my office, I miss the women and children who came to me and talked to me, I miss the noise in Kabul,” says Ghafari tearfully.
Taliban threaten the security of an entire generation
When asked what she would like to convey to the heads of state of the world, she said: “My message is: My blood is no different from yours. It is now about the security of a whole generation. About the rights of a generation and the rights of a nation. “(Nadja Austel)
