Winter storm warnings continue in northern Minnesota 

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

, but there are still forces of opposition  attempting to maintain human rights in the country. Many Afghan political leaders, including former president Ashraf Ghani, 

, but several female politicians stayed to resist the Taliban on the ground.

"My dear homeland, I know you are suffering and in pain," Zarifa Ghafari, one of Afghanistan's first woman mayors, 

 on Aug. 14. "... your real children who are looking to build you are very hard but with full courage trying to pull you out of these bad days."

Women bureaucrats like Ghafari are risking their lives and freedom to not only save their country and people — but to maintain the 

 When the Taliban previously held power in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, women and girls were denied basic rights, including the ability to learn, work or travel. 

 and to recruit women to join the new government, but 

 of Afghan women being forced to marry fighters and being publicly flogged. In Herat, female members of parliament 

 their houses searched and their cars taken away.

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

Salima Mazari, one of the three female district governors in Afghanistan, has been on 

 since 2019 — recruiting locals to protect the Charkint district from the Taliban. Before the Taliban takeover, half of the district Mazari governs was already under their control. 

"Taliban are exactly the ones who trample human rights," Mazari 

Raised as a refugee in Iran, Mazari said she returned to Afghanistan to 

, including farmers, shepherds and laborers, have joined Mazari's resistance.

"Our people didn't have guns but they went and sold their cows, sheep, and even their land, to buy weapons," Mazari said. "They are on the front line every day and night without getting any kind of credit or salary."

Prior to Taliban control of the country, Mazari had said that they would never tolerate a woman in such a leadership position if they returned to power. 

 been captured after the Taliban seized her district.

"There will be no place for women," said Mazari on Saturday in an interview with the 

. "In the provinces controlled by the Taliban, no women exist there anymore, not even in the cities. They are all imprisoned in their homes."

On Sunday, Afghanistan's youngest mayor said she was waiting for the Taliban to come and kill her.

"I'm sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I'm just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me," Ghafari, mayor of Maidan Shar since 2018, told the

. "I can't leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?"

Just three weeks ago, Ghafari had been hopeful about the future of the country. 

"Younger people are aware of what's happening. They have social media. They communicate. I think they will continue fighting for progress and our rights. I think there is a future for this country," she said at the time.

Ghafari has long championed women's rights in Afghanistan, hosting her own radio show and founding an organization focused on empowering women economically. She has 

, an attack Ghafari attributed to the Taliban.

"Women of my generation have not forgotten the reign of the Taliban and we are as always worried for the future," she said when honored with the International Women of Courage award last year.

Fawzia Koofi, second deputy speaker of parliament

While returning from a visit to the northern province of Parwan with her sister Maryam a year ago, 

 in the arm by gunmen who tried to assassinate her near Kabul. 

Koofi had been one of the few women to represent the Afghan government in peace talks with the Taliban last year. The peace process "depends on Afghanistan's women," 

Today, Koofi, the first woman to serve as second deputy speaker of parliament, is calling for a ceasefire. "We are all living in a very chaotic situation in Afghanistan. Because of the war, there is no accountability. People are killed without any accountability — extrajudicial killings, trials without courts," Koofi said in an interview with 

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 

 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.

Unrest

Dalia Faheid

Author

As the Taliban take over Afghanistan, women bureaucrats are risking their lives and freedom to not only save their country and people — but to maintain the rights of women and girls.

These female Afghan politicians are risking everything for their homeland

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox