Senior members of the government managed to flee, but Zarifa Ghafari and people like her have been left without help.

When Zarifa Ghafari spoke to i from her Kabul apartment just three weeks ago, she was hopeful that she – and her country – had a future.

On Sunday, with the Taliban preparing to assume control in the capital after its sickeningly quick advances across Afghanistan, she was waiting for the Islamic militants to come and kill her.

“I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?”

At that point, she said she was no longer able to talk.

Ms Ghafari, 27, rose to prominence in 2018 by becoming the youngest, and first female, mayor in Afghanistan in Maidan Wardak province. The Taliban has frequently vowed to kill the articulate, politically influential female critic. Her father General Abdul Wasi Ghafari was gunned down on 15 November last year, just 20 days after the third attempt on her life failed.

With the Taliban resurgent and her public profile rising, Ms Ghafari was given a job in the relative safety of the defence ministry in Kabul, with responsibility for the welfare of soldiers and civilians injured in terror attacks.

Three weeks ago, Ms Ghafari said: “Younger people are aware of what’s happening. They have social media. They communicate. I think they will continue fighting for progress and our rights. I think there is a future for this country.”
As the capital falls, senior members of the government have managed to flee the sinking ship. But Ms Ghafari and people like her have no nowhere to hide.

“We were thinking that Kabul wouldn’t collapse to the Taliban,” Farzana Kochai, an Afghan MP, told i. She said that tens of thousands of families fled to Kabul for safety were now living in the streets and parks. If power is transferred from the government to the insurgents, those families will have to return to their homes and live under Taliban rule, she said.

On Sunday the Taliban’s chief spokesman promised Zabihullah Mujahid that the lives of women and opponents would be protected.

The insurgents said they’d offer an “amnesty” to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces.

“No one’s life, property and dignity will be harmed and the lives of the citizens of Kabul will not be at risk,” the Taliban said.

However, there is already evidence of revenge killings and other brutal tactics in areas of the country seized by the group, which is now looking to confirm its hold on Kabul.

A new Taliban-led Afghan government is expected to take power in a matter of days, or even hours of Sunday. The Taliban insisted they were seeking a peaceful transfer of power and promised an amnesty for those who had worked with foreign countries or the Afghan government.

However such assurances were met with deep scepticism amid fears they would return to the hardline policies they pursued before they were forced out in 2001 – including the suppression of women and girls.

She was honored by the Trump administration with the International Woman of Courage award

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/afghanistans-first-female-mayor-waiting-taliban-come-kill-her-1152127

https://www.newsweek.com/afghanistan-female-mayor-waiting-taliban-kill-me-no-help-coming-1619776

This is disheartening...

I don't even know what to say....

This one tire me .....I'm tempted to say islamabad

Only a Biden administration can happily sit back and watch insurgents take over a country

Afghanistan

Hmmm..... Nigeristan comes to mind.

U better run for your life, if your president can run been a man, I wonder how you want to handle this been woman under this extremists and terrorists .

Be like that position of power sweet you more than your life.