Five years after the Taliban seized Kabul on August 15, 2021, an Afghan woman who escaped the city days after her engagement party says the world has stopped paying attention to her home country. Salma, who asked to be identified by first name only, was 22 and midway through a master's degree when the Taliban returned to power; she is now living in Australia and preparing to begin a PhD.
Afghan woman reflects on five years of Taliban rule after Kabul evacuation
Five years after the Taliban seized Kabul on August 15, 2021, an Afghan woman who escaped the city days after her engagement party says the world has stopped paying attention to her home country. Salma, who asked to be identified by first name only, was 22 and midway through a master's degree when the Taliban returned to power; she is now living in Australia and preparing to begin a PhD.
Salma said her family had been tracking the Taliban's advance across Afghanistan and kept the television on constantly for news. When she entered the lounge room on Sunday, August 15, 2021, the television signal had been cut. 'We thought maybe another war would happen but no one was expecting the government to leave,' she said.
Her family made two attempts over two days to reach Kabul's international airport, navigating Taliban checkpoints and tanks in the streets. She said she could hear gunfire being used to control crowds when the airport was still more than a kilometre away, and described seeing mothers holding up their children at the perimeter.
Salma's family was able to reach the airport because one of her brothers, an Australian citizen working in academia who had travelled to Kabul for the engagement celebration, was contacted by the Australian government and assisted in facilitating their departure. The family took one set of clothes each. After spending a night in a holding area, they boarded a military transport plane to Dubai.
A few weeks after arriving in Australia, Salma enrolled in the final semester of her master's degree. She has since completed a postgraduate certificate in global development and is about to begin a PhD examining feminism in Afghanistan.
She said that each time the Taliban imposed a new restriction on women over the past five years — including banning women from universities and girls from school after the age of 13 — she experienced the same emotional impact as if it were happening to her directly. 'Getting out of the country never automatically means getting out of what's happening in Afghanistan,' she said.
- The source does not state Salma's full surname or confirm whether she asked to be identified by first name only.
- The source does not state the number of family members who evacuated with Salma.
- The source does not provide the Australian government's account of or comment on the evacuation process.
- The source does not state how many Afghans were evacuated to Australia during the August 2021 operation.
- The source does not state whether any members of Salma's family remain in Afghanistan.
- The source does not identify the university or institution where Salma is undertaking her PhD.
Read the original at ABC News Australia