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Zarifa Ghafari arrived in Germany with her family on Monday evening and met the Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) directly.
Photo:
Federico Gambarini / dpa
DER SPIEGEL:
Ms. Ghafari, when we spoke on the phone a week ago, you were sitting in an apartment in Kabul.
You said you expected death.
That the Taliban have already murdered your father and grandfather, and that you yourself are acutely threatened.
Now you've made it out of the country.
How did the hours of your escape go?
Zarifa Ghafari:
I arrived in Bonn on Monday evening, together with my family.
At the end of last week - the days are blurring in my head - we made it to Kabul airport.
A driver came with a car.
I hid in the footwell.
The situation was terrible.
We were all so scared.
You have to pass Taliban checkpoints on the way to the airport.
We were stopped there, a man asked our driver where we were going.
He replied that we were on our way from one province to the next.
I continued to crouch behind the seats by my family's feet.
I almost couldn't breathe, my heart was beating so wildly.
SPIEGEL
: And then what?
Ghafari
: Let us continue the Talib.
No control of the car, no inquiries.
We were very lucky.
How many people who are acutely threatened fail at precisely these checkpoints every day!
SPIEGEL
: How did you then make it into an evacuation machine?
Ghafari
: We were supported by various international authorities.
But there was again chaos at the airport, we had difficulties finding our way around, getting through the crowds.
Finally we boarded a plane to Islamabad, then we flew on to Turkey.
There the German consulate in Istanbul took care of it, so that we could fly on to Germany yesterday evening.
SPIEGEL
: You met Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet there.
Ghafari
: He assured me that he would take care that my family is permanently safe.
I told Mr Laschet that 99 percent of women in Afghanistan continue to live in absolute insecurity.
That they never hope for an evacuation flight, will never be on one of these escape lists from German, American or Turkish authorities.
That this must be clear to him.
But I am also very grateful to Germany that I and my family were helped and that we are alive.
SPIEGEL
: How are you now?
Ghafari:
If someone wants to know how I feel, they should just imagine what it would be like to be torn from their beloved home.
It's cruel.
Not knowing if you will ever see her again.
Whether you will ever hug again the people you grew up with, with whom you achieved things.
My country means everything to me.
Should I ever enter it again, will I still recognize it?
SPIEGEL
: What is your strength right now?
Ghafari
: You know, I really want to tell the world about the women in Afghanistan now.
I want to win your hearts, your feelings for the women in Afghanistan.
We women must stand together worldwide.
We need to raise our voices.
I want to be a fighter for the rights of Afghan women.
SPIEGEL
: Do you have a message for the Taliban?
Ghafari
: I will work to ensure that the Taliban return to the negotiating table.
Do not cast your veil of cruelty and violence on our land!
But let's get our basic rights!
Keep Girls Going to School!
That is the most important thing: that the school remains open to all children.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are threatened in their freedom by the return of the Taliban.
SPIEGEL
: You fled Afghanistan in a hurry within a few hours, and now you are in a completely different country.
In the city of Bonn.
Ghafari
: We couldn't take anything with us.
Baggage arouses suspicion.
I took my father's military cap with me.
He always wore them when he was alive.
He was a general and was murdered by the Taliban nine months ago.
I brought my own military uniform from my time working at the Ministry of Defense.
It reminds me of the good times in Afghanistan.
And I took a small can full of Afghan sand with me.
I can't fall asleep until I get to that
Smelled heap of sand, touched it.
SPIEGEL
: How do you feel about suddenly having to build a new home?
Ghafari
: I don't want a new home.
I have a home.
I have a country.
I have a society that I come from.
That all remains.
I'm safe, that's good.
I am grateful for that.
But I wish every Afghan woman could be a Zarifa Ghafari.
This contribution is part of the Global Society project
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