STORY: Six weeks ago, Fawzia Saidzada finally made it. The 30-year-old journalist and women’s rights activist from Afghanistan arrived in Berlin after almost six months on the run. In her homeland, before the Taliban took power, she had experienced a newly won freedom for women. She studied, worked as a journalist and activist. Then came the sudden end. The radical Islamic new rulers massively restricted the rights of women and girls. Saidzada went underground and was captured by the Taliban months later. She was only released when she pretended to want to work with those in power. “Afghan women are the real heroes. When the Taliban came, many women stayed, even though there was an opportunity to flee. We stayed in Afghanistan to defend our people, our women and our youth. When the Taliban came, we could we don’t flee. They took over all of Afghanistan and took power. And now nobody can live in peace.” Saidzada now wants to continue her journalistic work from Germany. She demands an explanation as to why Germany and the West first promised to save Afghanistan and then abandoned it.