Since the Taliban came into power, Rahila Hassan’s life has been turned upside down. The fear and dread of being abducted by this group and Pakistani soldiers have become the nightly specter haunting her, moments when she might be detained by Pakistani troops and handed over to the Taliban. The same group has cast a shadow over the lives of women in Afghanistan for over two years and spares no effort to enslave them. During this time, she has endured more than just fear—stress and suffering have become her constant companions. Like dozens of women’s rights activists who, after months of imprisonment, have become refugees in another country, where peace has also been stolen from them, and the bone-chilling nightmare is forbidding sleep from her. She made her way from Afghanistan to Pakistan to save her life, enduring countless hardships, and as she crossed the border, where one side held life and the other held the fear of death, she etched bitter memories in her mind—the moments when she saw the faces of the Taliban and felt the darkness of their oppression deep in her bones. While the anguish of helplessness from that day has yet to be swallowed, she recounts its terrifying moments with fear and stress. She seeks solace in a place where women’s lives are delicately connected to a thin thread of safety.
Rahila Hassan is one of the women’s rights activists who has fought for women’s rights for years, working to raise awareness and foster the talents of women and children. Before the Taliban’s rule, she made efforts in various organizations to empower women and launched an organization called Girls UP. In Girls UP, she provided language classes, skills such as sewing and embroidery, and financial assistance to female students who couldn’t afford their educational expenses, ensuring they wouldn’t drop out of school. She was supposed to sign agreements with several private universities and Kabul University to expand her work, agreements that would allow a large number of female students to acquire various skills alongside their regular studies. However, after the Taliban came to power, not only did she lose these contracts, but she was also forced to cease all her activities. Upon identifying her, the group summoned her under the pretext of aiding her in continuing her work in various places and intended to detain her.
She says, “Before the Taliban seized power, my phone number and email were registered with various organizations. I used to receive suspicious calls and messages through my number and email. One day, a woman who introduced herself from the World Bank called me and said they wanted to give me some budget for my trade, and told me to come to the seventh floor of a Market Named Zadran, even though there was no office there. Another reputable organization contacted me and asked me to come to a place outside Kabul where they claimed some assistance was waiting for me, insisting that it belonged to me. Likewise, I received dozens of messages and calls. They even tried to lure me to Kabul University several times, but fortunately, with the help of one of the professors there, I became aware and didn’t go. I realized that everyone was trying to hand me over to the Taliban under any pretext.”
Rahila, like dozens of other women and individuals in peril, recounts the bitter and sorrowful tale of her escape, an escape that, alongside losing her home, livelihood, and years of hard work, has brought her to the brink of death multiple times. She narrates her escape as follows: “To flee Afghanistan, I persuaded my father to accompany me. To avoid detection by the Taliban, I dressed entirely in black, so much so that even my hands were barely visible. We passed through dozens of checkpoints of this group until we reached the border, and at each checkpoint, I feared for my life countless times.”
Under the complete black cover, a girl was hidden, leaving behind her hopes and dreams, intending to transfer her body to safety; a girl whose breaths were counted under that veil, struggling for the salvation of her body. She didn’t want to leave behind all her possessions and enter another world, but out of fear of her family’s humiliation and torture by the Taliban, she was forced to flee. With eyes full of tears and fear gnawing at her flesh every moment, she reaches the border. The members of this group separate her from her father at the border and interrogate them both. After numerous questions, they allow her father to pass but detain her, keeping her there for an hour. She, who has not forgotten that day, says with a trembling voice: “They kept me there for more than an hour, bombarding me with questions. They asked who I was and where I was going. They intended to see my face somehow, but I was entirely covered in black, and even my hands weren’t visible. With mischievous laughter that made me feel sick, they said I wasn’t allowed to go and must turn back. My hands and feet trembled, and I was very scared of being identified, fearing this border would be the last place I breathe. I was paralyzed with fear until a boy, about ten years old, I don’t know who he was or how he knew they wouldn’t let me pass, said if you want to rescue yourself, distract the Taliban and run away. It was very difficult, but I had no choice. When the members of this group were busy conversing on other matters, I ran and didn’t look back. Every moment, I felt like I was being shot at, but halfway there, I heard screams and shouts rise. As I ran, I looked back. I saw the Taliban had taken the same ten-year-old boy who had shown me the way and was beating him so fiercely that his screams echoed far and wide. They understood that the boy had a role in my escape. I was very scared and said to myself, if these savages don’t spare the boy’s life, what will they do to me? If I fall into the hands of this group, they will tear me apart, but my heart is still stuck at the border, restless. I don’t know what happened to that helpless boy.”
Rahila thought that by escaping from the clutches of the Taliban, she would reach a haven and would no longer have to fear or dread anything. However, she was unaware that she had fallen from one pitfall to another. Now, the relative peace she had has also been lost, and there’s always the possibility that the Pakistani police might return her to Afghanistan due to the expiration of her visa and its non-renewal. The fear of returning and falling into the hands of the Taliban has grounded her these days, and she has lost her health due to the intensity of stress and mental pressure. Like many women and girls caught in the whirlpool of fear and despair, she sees no way out.
