Afghan Women Brace For The Taliban Takeover

In August, the world watched on in horror as the Taliban seized Afghanistan, collapsing 20 years of a US-led mission to protect the country and sparking a humanitarian emergency. Under Taliban rule, women’s safety and rights are under grave threat, and those unable to escape are fearful of their future. Three women caught in the crisis tell their stories to Sarah Ayoub

- Sarah Ayoub

ZARSANGA SAYYID*, 24

Zarsanga was based in Kabul, working in finance and living in a dormitory with two other women. She fled to the airport the day the Taliban conquered Kabul and, following a harrowing ordeal, she managed to get onto an evacuating flight. While she is now safe in an undisclosed location, she is still fearful for her life.

“I spent six years working with foreign officials and knew I would be killed if the Taliban returned to power, so the contractors I’d been working with decided that I should be taken out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.

I booked a ticket for Islamabad, as my family are all living there – they left Afghanistan a year ago. But on the day I was due to fly out, my airline told me that my flight had been canceled. The next day, the Taliban started going door to door. I didn’t open mine and told them to leave, but they shouted at me, saying I should not be living without a mahram – an immediate male relative – because girls who live alone aren’t of good character. I called my contractor, who told me to immediately leave that apartment.

I put my laptop, a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water in a backpack and ran away. I didn’t even pack any clothes or say goodbye to anyone. It took so long to reach the airport because the roads were so crowded with people trying to get there. I had to pass a Taliban checkpoint on the way, and they kept telling me to go home, but I was begging them to let me pass. They hit me with the backs of their AK-47s so that I would move away, but another soldier let me go.