50 YEARS OF THE DOT. The youngest woman appointed mayor in Afghanistan, exiled in Germany when the Taliban arrived in 2021, believes in the strength of her generation.
by Zarifa Ghafari
women’s rights activist
Youngest woman appointed mayor in Afghanistan, she went into exile in Germany when the Taliban arrived in 2021. Her book: “Zarifa: the fight of a woman in a world of men” (Ed. JC Lattès) .
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JMy name is Zarifa Ghafari and I am 27 years old. I am one of the first women to be appointed, in 2019, mayor in Afghanistan in the city of Maidan Shahr. Although the Taliban were not yet in power at the time, they were omnipresent in the conservative region of Wardak where I had been appointed. Thus, due to the pressure exerted by mafia groups linked to the Islamists, who found it unthinkable that a single woman could run a city, it was for a long time impossible for me to go to my place of work. One day, I decided to brave the threats against me and I was attacked and injured in the head. But having obtained this position on merit – thanks to my academic skills – it was inconceivable for me to give it up and I still carried out my mission until 2021, before evolving within the Afghan ministry. of the defense. At the time, we had a lot of hope for the future of our country. Our generation was going to move Afghanistan forward. We thought that in ten to twenty years, our state could compete with certain countries in the region. Unfortunately, the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021 and destroyed everything in their path. The country, which was promised a bright future, no longer exists.
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Connected to Afghanistan. Because of the Islamists, Afghanistan has been cut off from the rest of the world. Moreover, under no circumstances should the international community recognize the new Taliban regime, because it has not kept any of its promises. Under the Islamic Emirate, women were excluded from their work. The girls have been banned from school and we don’t have enough to eat. The security situation is getting worse day by day, so that everyone is trying to flee, even if it means having to sell their house and give up their whole life to hope to reach Iran or Pakistan. For my part, I had to leave my homeland in August 2021 to take refuge in Germany. Despite the physical distance, I remain connected to Afghanistan, both in heart and in spirit. And if the situation is critical today in our country, the voices of Afghan women have not died out, quite the contrary. We women have always been the first opponents of the Taliban, while the United States negotiated with them and told us that they had changed. If we have been betrayed by the Americans, the Afghan women have not given up their fight. Thus, the first demonstrations against fundamentalists in Kabul in September 2021 brought together women. And if these have been repressed, the most powerful voices in the world to denounce the tragic situation of Afghan women are today those of women.
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Take risks. The purpose of my life is never to despair of anything, and to refuse to be disappointed by anything. I personally believe in the strength of my generation and in the accuracy of our fight, which continues, yesterday as today, for a better tomorrow. If my life has known ups and downs, I have seen, whatever the times, women fight in Afghanistan, unlike the men who have always worked for its destruction. Today, the Afghan people are war-weary and need to reform themselves from within, without any outside interference. We also need to take risks, because nothing comes for free in life. That’s why I decided to return to Afghanistan last February, to help around a hundred families, including widowed women. Many other Afghan activists who spend their time criticizing on Facebook can’t say the same.§ Interview by armin arefi
Mathias FILIPPINI/REA FOR “THE POINT”