My Female Afghan Friend Was a Taliban Target. But She Just Made it to the U.S.
A hero for Afghanistan.
In 2018, I interviewed Pashtana Durrani, a human rights activist and vocal critic of the Taliban. At the time, Pashtana, just 20, was a year in to building her organization, LEARN, which focuses on creating opportunities for individuals and communities in Afghanistan. One of the biggest areas of focus for LEARN is women’s education.
I was impressed by this 20-year-old woman and her deep desire to create a change in a country rife with terrorism and destruction for the last two decades. Pashtana’s human rights activism was so effective that it put her on the Taliban’s radar.
In truth, she had been defying the Taliban’s way of doing things all of her life.
When Pashtana was a child, she lived in a refugee camp near Quetta, Pakistan. In the area, there was schooling for boys but not for girls. Pashtana wanted to learn and voiced her concerns to her late father and mother, who decided to set up a school allowing girls to get a basic education.
Fast forward to August 2021, I had a few career changes and was involved in helping with a small part of evacuation efforts in Afghanistan. By this time, Pashtana’s profile had grown, and she had become something of a public figure in her country. There was no question that her life was in danger.
When I talked to her, she was in hiding, and we tried to figure out some way to get her out of Afghanistan. Pashtana told me about the threat to her life, explaining that if a member of the Taliban were to identify her at a checkpoint, she could be “killed.” I couldn’t stop thinking about her safety and what could be done to save her. Like many people working on this problem set, I lost sleep and worried a lot about Pasthana and my other Afghan friends.
As the Taliban and Haqqani Network started to hunt Afghans for various reasons, my concerns over Pashtana’s safety only grew. Sadly, I wasn’t able to assist her in evacuating Afghanistan. But she didn’t give up. She continued to raise her profile by speaking out against the injustices in Afghanistan on major media networks. Other people noticed her courage and fearlessness and got involved in securing a way for Pashtana to get out.
In late October, Pashtana arrived in the United States.
Because of all the hurdles I know Pashtana went through to get safely to the U.S., I had to ask her if the news was true even though she had shared it on social media. I texted her, “You made it?!!!!” Pashtana replied, “Yes, yes. I made it. Yesssss.”
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