Since the Taliban swept to power in August 2021, I had travelled to Afghanistan several times as an international correspondent for the BBC. The shambolic nature of their takeover and the little experience the one-time insurgents had in running a country meant I was able to freely travel to places that were once deemed the most dangerous on Earth.
I was now heading back to the country, following a two-week break in Sydney to visit my parents. I was slightly nervous about making this journey. A lot had changed since my last visit in June 2022. Women had been banned from universities, from public parks, from going to gyms; they could no longer travel long distances in the country or abroad without a male chaperone. The Taliban had also issued an edict stating that, unless it was absolutely necessary, they should refrain from leaving their homes.
The flight to Kabul is always an emotional one for me. I’ve been back and forth to the Afghan capital more than 15 times over the past 15 years. Each time feels like the first time. I have a deep connection with this city. It is where I was born almost 40 years ago. It is where my parents fled from when I was just six months old, locking up their home at first light in 1984 and never looking back. They travelled over the mountains, by foot and horseback using people smugglers and local tribesmen to guide them to Pakistan. Eventually they would settle in Australia.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2023-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2023-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.