Friday 20 August 2021
He flew to Istanbul
Save the Afghan mayor Ghafari
Women in Afghanistan fear for their lives – and this was also the case with the young mayor, Zarifa Ghafari, whose cries for help spread around the world. Now the 29-year-old is safe thanks to German help.
Afghan politician is threatened by the Taliban and Women’s Suffrage Zarifa Ghafari It was expelled from the country. As reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, she and her family managed to board a Turkish plane in Kabul, which meanwhile landed in Istanbul. Now you want to travel to Frankfurt. The 29-year-old was the mayor of Maidan Shar, the provincial capital, which is located 40 kilometers west of Kabul. In an interesting interview she asked for help. “I’m sitting here and waiting for you to come. There is no help for me and my family,” she told the British news portal News.
According to the report, she owes her rescue to German doctor and human rights activist Ingrid Graven zu Solms-Wildenfels, whose founder Ghafari honored last year with a human rights award. She persuaded Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to put Ghafari’s name on the list of people to be flown. So Ghaffari was not a local employee, so he did not work for the Bundeswehr, the Foreign Ministry, or any other German organizations. According to Solms, the rescue was only possible with the help of Kramp-Karrenbauer, according to FAZ. Ghafari participated in a Solms Foundation program to promote “women with elite potential”.
In 2018, when he was only 26 years old, Ghafari became the country’s youngest mayor in Maidan Shar, a city of 50,000 people in Wardak Province, about fifty kilometers from Kabul. She grew up under the Taliban and was only able to go to school when she was twelve years old. She had to fight for her entry to the office, and armed men wanted her removed from town hall. After her studies in India, she actually started a radio station before delving into politics. In 2020, the US State Department honored her with a Woman of Courage award in recognition of her bravery.
Ghafari last lived in Kabul and commuted two hours a day to Shar Maidan. As an unmarried woman at the time, life in Wardak was too dangerous for her. In June, Ghafari was finally forced to vacate her post as mayor. “The Taliban threatened to kill my entire family if I didn’t withdraw from the crowd,” she told Bild newspaper. I finally gave in: “I must protect my mother and my six brothers.”