Zarifa Ghafari said that «no one dares to talk about sexual violence.» Photo: Marilla Sicily.
Afghanistan's youngest female mayor says she still receives daily death threats from the Taliban after fleeing to Germany two years ago.
On the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul Zarif, 28-year-old Ghafari told the Telegraph : “Every day I receive dozens of threats. Just yesterday, the Taliban told me, “Wait, we're coming for you.”
“That means nowhere is safe. My husband must accompany me everywhere. People have guns in Europe, USA or Asia. I don't feel safe anywhere.»
Ms Ghafari was elected mayor of the conservative central city of Maidan Shahr in 2018 at the age of 23 and survived three assassination attempts while still living in Afghanistan. During one of the assassination attempts, her father was killed.
After the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, Ms. Ghafari fled Afghanistan along with her husband, mother, brothers and sisters. She said that her mayoral position was filled by men, some of whom are linked to the Taliban.
Since the group seized power, Afghanistan has plunged into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Zarifa Ghafari says her mayor has been filled by men. Photo: Getty
More than two-thirds of the population is in urgent need of assistance, four million people suffer from acute malnutrition, and severe underfunding of aid programs has resulted in food rations for millions being cut in half.
The Taliban imposed extensive censorship of the media and access to information and created a culture of oppression that curtailed women's rights and freedoms.
Ms Ghafari said she feared for those who continued live under the Taliban regime. , especially women leaders and politicians like herself.
“It's hard to say that anyone is safe, especially women leaders, women activists, women journalists. It is impossible to accept that they can be safe,” Ms Ghafari said.
She added that she speaks regularly to former colleagues and friends still in Afghanistan who report that torture and imprisonment of women have become a widespread tool of persecution.
“Dozens of women were killed. Dozens of women are missing. Women are tortured, imprisoned, persecuted, raped,” she said. “The worst thing about rape and sexual assault is that no one talks about it. Nobody dares. There is no record of this.»
In May, the United Nations said that some of its Afghan female staff members had been detained, harassed and placed under travel restrictions.
The Taliban returned to power in 2021 and have since abandoned women's rights. Photo: AP
And in January, one of the two remaining female MPs left in Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power was gunned down in her home in the capital Kabul by an unknown assailant.
Mursal Nabizada, 32, served as an MP in the former government supported by the US from 2018 until the return of the Taliban to power and refused to leave Afghanistan despite death threats. lay on the ground with blood on the bed,” Ms. Nabizada’s mother said in an interview with the then Afghan media.
The deprivation of rights by the Taliban led to the fact that women were completely excluded from state and judicial bodies.
Girls were banned from secondary school, and women from higher education institutions. They are also banned from amusement parks, public baths and sports clubs, and from working in NGO offices.
Women must follow a strict dress code and are not allowed to travel more than 46 miles. (75 km) without a male companion such as a husband or father.
Those who protested the closure of the Ministry of Women's Affairs in September 2021 faced illegal detentions and violence, according to Amnesty International .
ICJ Secretary General Santiago Canton said the Taliban's actions are of such «scale, seriousness and such systematic nature» that they qualify as «a crime against humanity on the basis of gender.» persecution.”
“When it comes to women, everything is a mess,” Ms. Garifi said. «Everyone suffers.»
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