Woman at risk of being killed by Taliban could starve to death hiding in apartment – World News
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Marzia Hussaini now cannot leave her home to buy food and is living in fear of being killed by the Taliban who refuse to let her walk the streets without a man
A woman could starve to death in her Kabul apartment as she risks being killed by the Taliban if she leaves her home for food.
Marzia Hussaini, 27, has become a prisoner in her own home since the Islamic insurgents seized power in Afghanistan following the collapse of the country’s Western-backed Government and the withdrawal of US troops.
Marzia, who worked as a senior advisor for the Afghan Government and the US military, says the Taliban’s harsh interpretation of Islamic law is already being implemented and she isn’t allowed to leave her home – even for essential items – without a male companion.
She also risks being killed in revenge attacks if the Taliban discover she worked for the Afghan and US Governments.
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She says: “I am a prisoner in my own home. I can’t even go grocery shopping here alone without a man and I have no-one.
“I am so afraid, I don’t know what’s happening.
“The Taliban won’t allow women to go out of their homes without men – I tried to go out to buy food but the Taliban pushed me back into my home and told me I wasn’t allowed to leave without men. But I am here alone, I do not have any men.
“I have nothing to eat in my apartment.
“I have no option for escape and people are dying.
“The Taliban is looking door-to-door for people who have worked with the US and the Afghan Government. I am terrified they will know I worked for them.
“They will kill us because we have worked with the USA.”
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Marzia, who is the only woman PhD student in hydro-politics in Afghanistan says women’s rights have dramatically improved since 2001 when UK and US coalition forces first entered the country.
But now Afghan women are being cruelly abandoned.
She says: “I worked as a senior advisor to the minister of foreign affairs for the Afghanistan Government and with the US military for more than two years on various projects.
“I really beg UK and US officials: please do not leave Afghan women here.
“Over the past 20 years you’ve taught us how we can be brave, independent and how we can fight for our human rights, and we Afghan women have learned all this well. If you leave us alone here in Kabul we will die. We have no more hope. We can’t go out of our homes, we can’t go out to work.
“Now, if you leave the Afghan women, they will die because all their hopes and aspirations will die.”
Marzia, whose family are in Iran, also fears for her life as a member of the Hazara minority, who have been brutally tortured and killed by the Taliban.
She attempted to get on a plane at Kabul Airport earlier this week, but all flights were cancelled.
She says she saw “many painful scenes”, including a dead baby girl being carried in the arms of her distraught father and young girls weeping in fear that they would be raped by the Taliban.
