These Female Afghan Politicians Are Risking Everything For Their Homeland

Enlarge this image

Fawzia Kofi, seen at a political gathering in Kabul in 2013, is among the female politicians working to protect the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images

Asia
She Is Staying In Afghanistan To Ensure Women’s Gains Aren’t Lost Under Taliban Rule

The Taliban have promised to respect women’s rights and to recruit women to join the new government, but many remain skeptical. There have already been reports of Afghan women being forced to marry fighters and being publicly flogged. In Herat, female members of parliament had their houses searched and their cars taken away.

Among the women speaking out against the Taliban, at great personal danger to themselves, are these three prominent politicians:

Salima Mazari, governor

Enlarge this image

Salima Mazari, a district governor in Afghanistan, looks on from a hill on July 14 while accompanied by security personnel near the front lines against the Taliban in the Charkint district in Balkh province.

Farshad Usyan/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Farshad Usyan/AFP via Getty Images

Asia
The Taliban Seized Her City. Now America’s Red Tape Stops Her From Fleeing

Mazari was right. She has reportedly been captured after the Taliban seized her district.

«There will be no place for women, said Mazari on Saturday in an interview with the Associated Press. «In the provinces controlled by the Taliban, no women exist there anymore, not even in the cities. They are all imprisoned in their homes.

Zarifa Ghafari, mayor

Enlarge this image

Zarifa Ghafari received the annual International Women of Courage Award at a ceremony at the State Department in March 2020.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Enlarge this image

Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan politician and former member of parliament for Badakhshan province, speaks in her office on Sept. 12, 2019.

Scott Peterson/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Scott Peterson/Getty Images

Author Interviews
A ‘Favored Daughter’ Fights For Afghan Women

She says that she will continue to speak out against human rights abuses though her and other women’s lives are threatened. On Aug. 12, Koofi said that she plans to help as many women and children as she can with necessities like food, clothes, sanitary cloths and soap.

«Women are still doing their best. You have seen from across Afghanistan, every woman is on the media. They are trying to talk about what’s happening to them, their communities, she said.

Dalia Faheid is an intern on NPR’s News Desk.