REFUGEE PROJECTS

The New York Times article "Lost Between Borders: Afghan Women on the Lives They Left Behind' can be used to support the factual claims and legal arguments made by the applicant. The following are relevant excerpts, as well as the link to the entire article. 

 

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"Since the United States and its allies toppled the Taliban in 2001, the rights of Afghan women have animated much of the global narrative around the war. . . Bit by bit, slowly, steadily, women — though mostly in urban areas — wriggled out from under the Taliban’s conservative, theocratic thumb. It took just days for much of that progress to come crashing down. Since the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan in August, each new day has brought new restrictions on women — now they can’t play sports and college classes will be segregated by gender — raising concerns that the country is rapidly regressing to a repressive past." Page 1

 

"Today, it is precisely those women who broke from the traditional path who are most endangered. Many have gone into hiding. Hundreds have taken to the streets, protesting the regime, only to be met by the brute force of rifle butts and sticks. Others fled." Page 1

 

"As a TV journalist, I went to cover the peace negotiations with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, last October. When I was there, I interviewed Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban. I spoke to him without covering my hair and he was very uncomfortable — it was unintentional but that encounter became big news. After the peace talks, the Taliban started targeting and assassinating journalists. A couple of my colleagues were killed, and I was told that I was also on the Taliban’s hit list. Security forces told me to stay at home and stay low." Page 2

 

"The Taliban killed two of my brothers because we are Shiite Hazara. When the Taliban took over Mazar-i-Sharif back in 1998, I was only 3 years old, and that’s when they killed my brother, who was only 13. They shot him in the chest and the leg and left him on the street. We were not even allowed to collect his body. Then my second brother was killed in Takhar Province in 2001." Page 4

 

"Last November, I started receiving anonymous phone calls constantly. At first, I thought it wasn’t serious. But then, a couple of days later, I saw a car outside the building where I used to live, which was strange because the building had a garage in the basement and parking wasn’t allowed in front of the building. When I started walking, the car started moving, following me. Later that day, after I was done with work and leaving my office, I saw the car again. Then it happened again the next day. A few days after that, at 3:20 a.m., someone knocked on my apartment door. That’s when I got scared. I told my boss and my mum. And my mum told me, “I don’t want to lose another child, you have to leave.” Page 4