New Delhi: A 33-year-old Afghan woman named Khatera recounted a horrific tale in which she bore the brunt of the Taliban’s brutality. The woman, who is currently residing in Delhi, was attacked by the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province last year. They shot her eight times in her upper body, stabbed her all over and pierced her eyes with knives. They then left her on the street to die. She was pregnant.
The attack was conspired by none other than her own father who was a former Taliban fighter, Khatera told an English news channel.
“They first torture us (women) and then discard our bodies to show as specimen of punishment. Sometimes our bodies are fed to dogs. I was lucky that I survived it. One has to live in Afghanistan under the Taliban to even imagine what hell has befallen on the women, children and minorities there,” she said.
“They don’t just kill women. They make animals feed on their bodies. They are a blot on Islam,” she added.
Khatera is in India for her treatment. She was accompanied by her husband and two-month-old baby.
She said she was fortunate enough to be saved and get treated as she had the money for it.
“This fortune is not available for all. Women and anyone who disobeys the Taliban die in the streets,” she said.
Saddened by the current state of affairs in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken over control, Khatera was worried about those who have been left behind, especially the women.
“In the eyes of Taliban, women are not living, breathing human beings, but merely some meat and flesh to be battered,” she said.
“The Taliban don’t allow women to visit male doctors, and at the same time, don’t let women study and work. So, then what is left for a woman? Left to die? Even if you think we are just reproductive machines, there is no common sense but pure hate. How does a woman deliver her child according to the dictum of these men with guns without medical car?” she said.
Khatera said that the dreams that many Afghans built over a period of the last 20 years are lost.
