‘THEY WILL KILL ME’
Female journo runs & hides from squads
A journalist in Afghanistan is on the run and fears for her life — and those of the people hiding her — if the Taliban discover her whereabouts.
“I don’t know what will happen to me, because if they find me, they will kill me,” she told Fox News in an interview published Wednesday.
The journalist, whose identity is being concealed, said she was a vocal critic of the Taliban’s cruel treatment of women and lives in terror that the group will begin killing female journalists.
She said she “was one of the females to always talk against Taliban in the media because of what they did to the women, what they did to the innocent people in Afghanistan, what they did to the children in Afghanistan.”
“They burned them,” the 24-yearold told Fox News. “They killed them.” Shortly after the Taliban took over Kabul more than a week ago, they prohibited her from returning to her office, demanding she cover her face. But even after she did, they refused her entry.
“They told me, ‘You’re not allowed to come to the TV,’ ” she said. “‘We will have our own presenter, our own journalist. And we don’t need you anymore.’ ”
“‘We don’t need females here,’ ” she said a Taliban fighter informed her. “‘Go to your home. Don’t come back.’ ”
She fled her home along with her 17-year-old brother and has been staying with friends since, changing locations daily.
“They are checking for the people who always talked against them,” she said. “Every day, I’m changing my address to be sure that they can’t track me.”
The journalist also worries that friends could inform on her to protect themselves from reprisals.
“My friends are afraid because they think that they might be targeted because of me,” she said. “I don’t know who is actually my enemy right now.”
Taliban death squads have been scouring Kabul for Afghans who cooperated with the US and allied forces during the 20-year war and journalists who were critical of their regime.
Last week, a family member of a reporter for Deutsche Welle was shot dead by Taliban fighters during their search for the German journalist.
“I’m afraid what if they do the same thing for me?” said the journalist Fox News interviewed. “What if they kill my family member? What if they killed my friends for finding me? I don’t know how long I can do this. I can’t put more people in danger because of myself,” she said. “We might be safe just a few days more.”
The Taliban vowed to adopt a more tolerant stance on women and allow them to work and attend school, as opposed to when they ruled in the 1990s and banned women and girls from being educated or traveling outside the home unless accompanied by a man.
The female journalist told Fox News she doesn’t see the Taliban following through on that pledge.
“My message to the world and to America and to people all around the world is the Talibans are not change,” she told the outlet. “They are targeting people. They are killing people.”
The United Nations accused the Taliban of carrying out widespread human rights abuses, “summary executions” and placing harsh restrictions on women.
The woman said she was in her last year of law school and aspired to become a judge or an international lawyer, but that dream, like those of other women in Afghanistan, is in serious doubt.