Afghan female journalist struggles for women 'heroes' from exile
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[August 26, 2022]
By Fanny Brodersen and Alexander Ratz
BERLIN (Reuters) - It was when the Taliban
came to arrest her and her brother in October that Fawzia Saidzada, an
Afghan journalist and women's rights activist, finally decided it was
time to flee.
The 30-year-old managed to get out the next day after promising the
Taliban she would inform on other journalists and activists - something
she never did. Her brother was held for 15 days.
"When the Taliban came to power, we decided to fight against the
Taliban," said Saidzada, who is raising a 13-year-old son alone. "Our
slogan was 'either freedom or death'."
But the episode taught her she would have to carry on her struggle for
the rights of girls and women from abroad. She arrived in Berlin six
weeks ago along with her son, mother, two brothers and one of the
brother's families.
"Afghan women are heroes," she told Reuters TV. "Afghan women are
courageous, they are fighters who have faced war in the past four
decades but have not lost hope."
Saidzada is one of thousands of Afghans who have settled in Germany
since U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of the U.S.-led
forces that for decades propped up the government in Kabul.
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Within days, the Taliban had regained control, after fighting a 20-year
insurgency in which tens of thousands of civilians were killed. Since
then, they have curtailed the rights of women and girls.
Until Kabul's fall, Saidzada was a prototype of the new Afghanistan's
free woman, studying first law then journalism before working as a
journalist and commentator and running a human rights organisation.
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![](../images/082622PIX/news_i85.jpg)
Afghan journalist and women's rights
activist Fawzia Saidzada poses ahead of an interview with Reuters in
Berlin, Germany August 24, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
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The U.N. mission to Afghanistan says the Taliban is limiting dissent
by arresting journalists, activists and protesters.
The Taliban government, some of whose top leaders are on U.S. wanted
lists for suspected links to terrorism, has vowed to respect
people's rights according to its interpretation of Islamic law, and
said it would investigate alleged abuses.
In Germany, Saidzada said she wants to set up an aid organization
especially for young people in Afghanistan and maintains contacts
with human rights defenders, women activists and former soldiers in
her home country. And she wants to finish her master's degree in
international relations.
But the struggle will be a long one, since, she says, the Taliban
have brought Islamist militants to Afghanistan from all over the
world, and driven skilled doctors, lawyers and journalists from
their jobs.
Even as she hastens to learn German and settle in, Saidzada has
strong words of reproach for a country which, in coalition with the
United States, first promised to save Afghanistan and then abandoned
it. One day she would like to address the German parliament, she
said.
"Why did you leave us alone?" Saidzada said she would ask lawmakers.
(Editing by Thomas Escritt, William Maclean)
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