Afghan Mayor Zarifa Ghafari Says Waiting For Taliban: "They Will Come For People Like Me And Kill Me"

Since 2018, she has been the mayor of Maidan Shar, a town of 50,000 inhabitants located in Wardak, about fifty kilometers from Kabul.

In 2020, she received the International Women of Courage Award, bestowed by the United States on women of “extraordinary achievement”.

Today, she is waiting for the Taliban to come and kill her.

British media inews spoke to her on Sunday.

“I'm sitting there waiting for them to come.

There is no one to help me or to help my family.

I'm just sitting with them and my husband.

And they're going to come for people like me and kill me.

I cannot leave my family.

And anyway, where would I go?

She told them.

She was then no longer able to speak to them.

Saturday on Twitter, she said she was already "ready to stay here until the last moments of [her] life".

My dear homeland,

I know you are suffering and in pain 😢

I know it is hard for you because strangers burn you and seek your destruction 😢

But your real children who are looking to build you are very hard but with full courage trying to pull you out of these bad days 😍 pic.twitter.com/paQh0Nry4f

- Zarifa Ghafari (@Zarifa_Ghafari) August 14, 2021

The 29-year-old has been the target of death threats and assassination attempts for several years.

In November 2020, his father was killed outside his home in Kabul.

She thought then that the Taliban were responsible for this assassination, perpetrated so that she resigns from her post as mayor.

Taliban ensure women will be able to work

The case of Zarifa Ghafari is reacting internationally, as concerns grow about the situation of women in Afghanistan.

With the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul, experts expect a decline in women's rights.

An image that the Taliban are trying to get rid of.

One of their spokespersons, Suhail Shaheen, told the BBC that women's rights would be preserved.

“Our policy is that women can have access to education, to employment.

Of course they will wear the hijab, ”he said on air Sunday.

To read alsoReturn of the Taliban in Afghanistan: "When you are a woman, inevitably, one thinks of suicide"

These words are difficult to convince. The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres already said he was "horrified" last Friday by the information on violations of women's rights in Afghanistan by the Taliban. "I am deeply concerned by the first reports that the Taliban are imposing severe restrictions on human rights in the areas they control," the UN chief lamented to the press. It is particularly horrifying and heartbreaking to see that the hard-won rights of Afghan girls and women are being taken away from them ”.

Zarifa Ghafari had also reacted to this statement, denouncing the fact that the UN reacts so late. " Finally ! Thank you Mr. Antonio Guterres, but just letting you know that will not solve the problem. We are shocked that you find out so late when you can hear anyone else's voice in the world faster than us, ”she wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

When they ruled this country, between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban imposed their ultra-rigorous version of Islamic law. Women could neither work nor study. Wearing the burqa was compulsory in public and they could not leave their homes unless accompanied by a “mahram”, a male chaperone of their family. Flogging and executions, including stoning for adultery, were carried out in town squares and in stadiums.