The story of the woman sentenced to death by the Taliban for fleeing with her teenage daughters they bought

Fariba Akemi saved her life in two suitcases when she fled Afghanistan to escape more than two decades of life under the Taliban and seek a better future for her daughters. He shuddered with fear when the Islamist group returned to power with the conquest of Kabul last week. “If they find me, they will kill me,” Akemi said. The independent from his new home in Delhi. “The Taliban had issued a death warrant,” he said, with no expiration date.

The 40-year-old from Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, made the impossible decision four years ago when she decided to leave all of her family, friends and loved ones behind, knowing that ‘she could never come back. It was the price she had to pay to leave her husband behind, she says, whom she discovered as a Taliban fighter.

Akemi says she was only 14 when her parents married her with an acquaintance they didn’t know much about. “In Herat, nobody cares about age. He was 20 years older than me and yet I accepted my nikah (marriage) with him because we were facing extreme financial problems. No one in my family knew his real identity, ”he says, speaking in the Hindi he learned while watching Bollywood movies in Afghanistan.

“Not long after we got married, he started hitting and mistreating me. Sometimes he wouldn’t go home for days and months. Everything started to fall apart. They stole my education because he never let me study, because for him a woman was only a khidmati [servidor] for him. I accepted it as my destiny and we had four daughters, ”he says.

The already grim situation worsened considerably when Akemi’s eldest daughter turned 14. She says her husband began to accumulate large debts and sold the girl to marry her to a Taliban fighter. “He used to take drugs and got involved in his business. He sold my eldest daughter, who was 14 at the time, for 500,000 Afghans (£ 4,225). I used to cry all the time and no one helped us. He threatened me that I would do the same with my three other daughters if I told someone, ”she says.

“One day he came home and said he had sold our second daughter. I was devastated and couldn’t stop crying. She was very small, about 11 or 12 years old. I went to the police and the Afghan government to ask for help in finding my daughter, ”he says. Akemi says her husband learned that she had come to ask for help from the authorities and responded by attacking him with a knife. “He hurt me in four places. I still have scars on my neck and arms, and my two fingers are not working.

Fearful but refusing to give in, she returned to the police to file a complaint. But this time her husband had fled Herat, and that’s when the police officially confirmed he was a Taliban fighter. “After she left, I got a call from the Taliban saying they needed my third daughter because my husband had already billed her.” This was Akemi’s breaking point: having lost two daughters, she had to choose between letting her sisters also be sold to the Taliban or fleeing to an unknown foreign land without any support or certainty about the future.

Akemi says the Taliban have repeatedly sent notices to her family in Herat, passing a death sentence and saying they too would face serious consequences if she did not return with her daughters. “The Taliban sentenced me to death for running away with my two daughters. But the ad doesn’t say anything about the two girls I lost. I have no idea what happened to them or if they are alive or dead, ”he says.

Since taking the reins of the Afghan government on August 15, Taliban leaders have tried to offer guarantees that they would respect women’s rights within the norms of Islamic law. “We will allow women to work and study. We have executives, of course. Women are going to be very active in society but within the framework of Islam, ”Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the group, said at a press conference in Kabul last week.

Akemi says she doesn’t believe in what she calls “empty promises to take back power.” “Your way of thinking can never change. They present themselves as Reformed, but in reality they are the same as before, ”he said.

Describing the Taliban as “the enemy of the world,” Akemi says, “There are a lot of women like me who would say the same thing but are too afraid to speak. Soon the world will know again what life is like under Taliban rule, ”he adds. Akemi says she may have escaped, but she still fears for her safety and that of her family. “I have had sleepless nights since the Taliban came back to power. I have all my family, brothers, sisters, father and mother in Herat. The wifi is too weak in Herat now to talk to them on a video call and see their faces. I miss them and I’m afraid for them. I can never forgive myself if something happens to them, ”she said.

Akemi says she feels compelled to speak up now in the hope that Indian authorities will grant her a refugee card, which would allow her to access various rights. She is well aware of the dangers she always faces, but feels that she has no other choice. She says her husband already knows she lives in Delhi after an Afghan YouTuber filmed a video of her and posted it on his channel.

“My daughters are petrified, they worry about me,” she said. “As I walk down the road, I’m afraid that someone will stab me in the back or that someone will kidnap my daughters. India has given me a lot, but I have to leave India now. I need the help of the Indian government. Akemi was working in a gymnasium before the pandemic shut him down along with many other public spaces. The Covid situation in Delhi also delayed the process of applying for his refugee ID card.

“My case is pending due to the covid pandemic. I fear for my life and the pandemic has reduced my savings. I was out of work most of the time, ”he says. “All I ask is the basic human right to safety and life. I need help so that my two daughters do not suffer the same fate as their sisters ”.

Of The independent From Great Britain. Special for Page12

Translation: Celita Doyhambéhère