Middle East/North Africa

Prominent female Afghan politician under house arrest flees country

A prominent female Afghan politician has successfully fled the country on one of the last evacuation flights after having been put on house arrest by the Taliban after it captured Kabul, The Washington Post reported.

Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan legislator and vocal Taliban critic, fled to Qatar, saying that the country now felt unsafe for her and many others. Hours later, though, she said she intends to eventually return to the country.

Koofi, a widowed mother, was reunited with her two daughters in Doha, who fled the country on earlier flights, according to the Post. 

Koofi was the first female vice president of the parliament and was one of the select women who participated in negotiations between the now ejected government, which Washington backed, and the Taliban. Now, she is pleading with the insurgent group to stop the violence. 

“Taliban, hear us out: we must rebuild together! This land belongs to all of us,” she tweeted.
 
Koofi fled the country just as the last American evacuation flight left the country Monday. More than 123,000 civilians have been evacuated. 
 
Just 10 days earlier, Koofi said she had no plans of leaving the country, the Post noted. However, that changed as violence in the country started the escalate.
 
She has not clarified how she managed to flee the country, but she thanked the Qatari government for helping facilitate evacuations. 
 
Afghanistan’s minister for women, Hasina Safi, is also among those who fled the country, according to Australia’s ABC News. She said that leaving the country was her life’s “most difficult situation and decision.”