She was the only female mayor of Afghanistan. As soon as she took office, she faced death threats. In 2020, Taliban militants killed her father. She became a role model for Afghan women. Here is her incredible story:
Zarifa Ghafari became mayor of Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak Province, where the Taliban is strongest, in November 2019. She was the only female mayor of Afghanistan. She was 26 years old. Islamist organizations reacted to her being a woman and being young. She started her job 9 months late due to the opposition of the Taliban. As soon as she took office, she faced death threats.
She survived three assassination attempts. In 2020, Taliban militants killed her father. She became a role model to Afghan women. She defended women's rights and took initiative. After the Taliban regained power, she defected to Germany with her mother, husband, and five sisters in August 2021. In Afghanistan, the Western-backed secular regime collapsed in a short time after the US withdrew its support.
The most powerful of the armed, organized Islamist groups, the Taliban, took power in Kabul. The "Islamic regime" first started to expel women from social life. First, it "cleansed" the workplaces, then the schools, and finally the universities. They built a regime where women could not go out. They also expressed their moral justification by saying, "Women's going out on the streets and entering schools paves the way for prostitution."
Zarifa Ghafari (born 1994) is a former female mayor of Maidan Shahr, capital city of the Wardak Province, Afghanistan. Ghafari was one of the few Afghan female mayors, next to the first Afghanistan's mayor, Azra Jafari and Khadija Zahra Ahmadi, and was also the youngest to be appointed, at the age of 24. She is known for her efforts to advance women's rights in Afghanistan. Ghafari was chosen as an International Woman of Courage in 2020 by the US Secretary of State. She has survived three assassination attempts.
A country cannot modernize with modernization projects imported from the West. The Neocons (neo-conservatives), who dominated the USA for a while, undertook the mission of bringing democracy to the backward countries. That's why they invaded Iraq. This venture ended in bankruptcy in Iraq. Now we are living through the Afghan tragedy. In Afghanistan's current situation, Westerners, especially the USA, have great sins.
They spoiled the political chemistry of the country. The Soviet occupation was just another fiasco in terms of claims to socialism.
The fate of Afghanistan was conjoined with the fate of women. Now the Islamic regime is in power. They think they will strengthen the regime by confining women to their homes. They claim to build a new way of life in this male hell. Why in the name of religion, in the name of Islam, this tyranny can be put forward?
Why are women treated so hostile in the name of Islam? It is clear that the Islamic world needs accounting.
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