She could never have imagined, says Suraya Akbari, that one day she would be a refugee. But who could do that: imagine that in three or ten years he or she will have to leave their homeland, head over heels, in order to find a place that offers a new place to stay and reasonable security, at least for a while ?
Suraya Akbari was a member of the Afghan parliament, one of at least 69 women in this body. When the Taliban regained power in the country two years ago after US and NATO troops withdrew, almost all female MPs fled abroad, most of them to Canada. Akbari lives in Germany. They all received very specific death threats from the Taliban. That they had to flee is a tragedy. It was a privilege to be able to escape.
Franziska Sophie Dorau has now spoken for Akbari and two other – one must say: former – Afghan parliamentarians, Homaira Ayubi and Shinkai Karokhail Kabul’s Democracy in Exile, the ARD radio feature of the month August that she researched, produced by SWR. This weekend it will not only be broadcast by Bayern 2, but also by NDR Info (Sunday, 11:05 a.m.), WDR 5 (Sunday, 1:04 p.m.) and HR 2 (Sunday, 6:04 p.m.).
This enlightening program is about three things that cannot be viewed in isolation from one another: Firstly, there is the fact that women like these three even exist. For many men in Afghanistan it is still unimaginable to be represented by a woman. This tough struggle for acceptance, regardless of the power of the Taliban, is one level of this story. On a second level, it is about the recapture of power by the Taliban, the collapse of the delicate democratic structures and the personal consequences, especially for the members of parliament. And on a third level, what has happened since then: there is the impotence of the politicians, who can do little from exile. There are the political differences that partly existed between them and of course still exist – exile changes little about that. Dorau presents all of this very clearly.
However, the three women agree on one thing: They are convinced that the people of Afghanistan would be better off today if the world powers had not constantly interfered in the fate of the country over the past few decades.
Kabul’s Democracy in Exile – Documentary about Afghan women representativesBayern 2, August 5, 2023, 1:04 p.m. and ARD audio library.