Zarifa Ghafari Wiki – Zarifa Ghafari Biography
Zarifa Ghafari is an Afghan advocate, activist, politician, and entrepreneur. As of November 2019, she is the current mayor of Maidan Shahr, the capital city of the Wardak Province, Afghanistan. Zarifa is one of the few Afghanistani female mayors, and also is the youngest to be appointed at the age of 26. She is known for her efforts in empowering women’s rights in Afghanistan. Zarifa was chosen as an International Woman of Courage in 2020 by the US Secretary of State.
She attended Halima Khazan High School in Paktia Province for her primary education and pursued her higher studies at the University of Punjab.
She was officially appointed as the mayor of Maidan Shahr in July 2018 by the incumbent President Ashraf Ghani. However, her term as mayor of Maiden Shahr had to be delayed for a period of nine months due to the intervention of other powerful politicians. On her first day as mayor, she faced harassment from a group of men who mobbed her office and warned her to resign from the position. She also faced death threats from Taliban and ISIL after assuming her duties as mayor. Zarifa was sworn in as mayor of the Maidan Shahr in March 2019. Zarifa was able to introduce an anti-litter campaign in her town and she is a role model to other women.
Zarifa Ghafari Age
Zarifa Ghafari is 29 years old.
Zarifa Ghafari says she’s sitting duck waiting for the Taliban to kill her
How the Taliban are ready to rule Afghanistan again after 20 years, women and girls fear the return of the ‘dark days. Although the Taliban ‘promised’ to maintain a ‘moderate stance’ on women’s rights in the country this time around, the ‘reminders’ of the last time they ruled Afghanistan tell an entirely different story. Women were deprived of basic human rights, with laws such as’ no education for girls over 12 years old ‘,’ a man must accompany a woman when leaving the house ‘or’ women accused of adultery or protesting against the sharia of the Taliban. ‘ “The laws are stoned to death” during the last reign of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Afghan women have always been targeted for speaking out or protesting against Taliban’inhumane’ laws or simply for occupying positions of authority. As most senior government officials, including President Ghani, fled the country amid the Taliban insurgency, 27-year-old Zarifa Ghafari, who was the youngest in Afghanistan and the first female mayor of Wardak province, se remains in the capital without any help.
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As the Taliban took over Kabul on Sunday, August 15, Ghafari spoke to iNews and said: “I am sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go? Zarifa Ghafari rose to fame in 218 when she became the first female mayor of Afghanistan. It is important to note here that since then, there have been numerous attempts by the Taliban to kill a female politician. Not only that, Ghafari’s father, General Abdul Wasi Ghafari, was shot and killed on November 15, 2020, just days after the third attempt on his life failed.
With the resurgence of the Taliban and the obvious danger to his life, Ghafari was assigned a job in the relative security of the Ministry of Defense in Kabul, with responsibility for the well-being of soldiers and civilians injured in terrorist attacks. Now Zarifa Ghafari is left in Kabul unaided, unable to flee in time to escape the ‘clutches’ of the Taliban. On the other hand, the main Taliban spokesman “promised” that the lives of women and opponents would be protected on Sunday, August 15. The insurgents further indicated that they were seeking a “peaceful transfer of power” and that they would offer “amnesty” to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces. “No one’s life, property, and dignity will be harmed and the lives of Kabul’s citizens will not be in danger,” the Taliban said in a statement.