MADRID: Obaida Sharar, a former Afghan prosecutor, expresses relief as she pushes her son on a playground swing in Madrid on a sunny winter day that she found asylum in Spain after fleeing Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban took over.
After being in limbo in Pakistan without official refugee status for up to a year following the Taliban’s return to power, Sharar, who arrived in Madrid with her family, is one of 19 female prosecutors who have found asylum in the country.
She stated that she feels selfish for being happy while her fellow women suffer.
Sharar stated, “The majority of Afghan women and girls who remain in Afghanistan don’t have the right to study, have a social life, or even go to a beauty salon.” I can’t be content.
In 2021, the establishment of a government that upholds a strict interpretation of Islam resulted in a sudden restriction of women’s rights.
The Taliban administration has outlawed the majority of female aid workers and prevented women and girls from attending college and high school this past year.
While Sharar and her female coworkers lived in Afghanistan, their work was risky. As they oversaw the trials and convictions of men accused of gender crimes like rape and murder, female judges and prosecutors became the targets of threats and retaliation.
She was one of 32 women judges and prosecutors who left Afghanistan and spent up to a year trying to find asylum in Pakistan.
“I was the only female prosecutor in the province… I received threats from Taliban members and the criminals who I had sent to prison,” stated a prosecutor who specialized in gender violence and violence against children and gave only her initials as SM out of concern for her own safety.
She and her family are currently in Spain as well.
Many of the women have claimed that Western governments and international organizations abandoned them.
Ignacio Rodriguez, a Spanish lawyer and president of 14 Lawyers, a non-governmental organization that helps lawyers who have been prosecuted, said that the women had been held up as symbols of democratic success only to be discarded. 14 Lawyers is based in Bilbao and defends lawyers.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that it was unable to provide specific case-by-case guidance.
In a statement, UNHCR stated, “The Government of Pakistan has not agreed to recognize newly arriving Afghans as refugees.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been in talks with the government since 2021 about ways to help people in need in Afghanistan. Sadly, there has been no progress.”
Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Millions of Afghan refugees who fled the civil war that followed the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 now live in Pakistan. Despite Pakistan’s efforts to repatriate them through various programs, the majority of them have yet to return.
The Taliban have stated that a repatriation council can ensure the safe return of any Afghans who have fled the country since it took power in 2021.
Bilal Karimi, the deputy spokesman for the administration of the Taliban, stated, “Afghanistan is the joint home of all Afghans.” They are safe here and can live there.
