Zarifa Ghafari, the first female Mayor of Afghanistan is heartbroken with the collapse of the government and the resurgence of the Taliban. On Sunday, the Taliban assumed control of the country after its sickeningly quick advances across Afghanistan. The 27-year-old braveheart says she was waiting for the Islamic militants to come and kill her.
In her interview with an international daily’i’ newspaper, she said, “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. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?”
She further added, “I’m not afraid of dying. I don’t want to die because there would be no one else to look after my family (she has a mother and three sisters and three brothers). So, I have to stay strong – and survive. But I have been fighting for my rights and the rights of all Afghans and I will never stop,” she says.
Zarifa Ghafari rose to prominence in 2018 by becoming the first female, mayor of Maidan Wardak province. The Taliban has frequently vowed to kill the articulate female critic. After the third attempt on her life failed. Her father General Abdul Wasi Ghafari was gunned down on 15 November last year by the Taliban.