The Afghan Girl that the Argentine government helped out From Pakistan to Chile, from where her sister requested her as a refugee, she was finally able to take her plane this Wednesday through a safe-conduct to facilitate her international journey. It will arrive in Santiago this Friday the 10th, after two stopovers, in Dubai and Paris.
The young woman, 33, is called Zainab Momy. She was a professor of psychology at the University of Bamyan, Afghanistan. But after the reconquest of his country by the Taliban militia, when the United States forces withdrew, he managed to flee. It was on August 18 when he was able to reach the city of Quetta in Pakistan through a border crossing with a group of compatriots who They paid migrant smugglers and displaced people.
In a discreet diplomatic operation, and at the request of the Chilean government, Foreign Minister Felipe Solá ordered that the Argentine ambassador to Pakistan, Leopoldo Sahores, assist her until the moment she embarked on her journey to Santiago.
In a video recorded from the airport with Zainab, Ambassador Sahores said that they had finally managed to get Migrations from Pakistan to grant him the visa that the girl – who speaks fluent English – had at her disposal, in what was a tough process since she handles with a pass. “I feel emotions and I am happy. We finally did it”, he hears her say.
Afghan Zainab Momeny was finally able to escape the Taliban.
In Chile
Her sister, Zahra Habibi, an Afghan refugee who arrived in the neighboring country in 2008 and is studying medicine, awaits her in the trans-Andean capital. It was she who repeatedly asked for help through social media.
It was a desperate claim for what the repressed life represented in the past for girls and women in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime – they cannot work or study to begin with. The claim reached the ears of Chancellor Andrés Allamand.
In a dramatic testimony she had given to Chilean television, Zainab said she was sure that the Taliban regime soon he was going to “get rid” of her. “Possibly they will make my life impossible,” he warned.
The situation of the young Momeny made Buenos Aires and Santiago put aside the strong bilateral escalation due to the conflict on the continental shelf in the seas south of Tierra del Fuego. But the tension that still prevails between the two capitals made the two governments not publicize this diplomatic cooperation that is part of the international policies of humanitarian law.
KA Taliban guard in Kabul. Photo EFE
Zainab is Hazara, a Persian-speaking ethnic group residing in the central region of Afghanistan. They are a minority, who also live in parts of Iran, and who it strongly resists the rules of the Taliban.
Hence the young woman was in danger. Even more so because it is divorcee, which in Afghanistan represents a social rejection. “I am a divorced woman, teacher, and the message from the Taliban is that they cannot protect me from them,” she said.
These days she was accompanied by her brother, her sister-in-law and her nephews, who even accompanied her to the airport. Sahores told Clarion that there were moments of restrained emotion, in which they barely said goodbye with handshakes.
More families
There are at least ten Afghan families or citizens who would be able to come to Argentina, but the Government does not decide.
Chile offered together with other Latin American countries – such as Brazil and Mexico – to receive Afghans seeking refuge, especially women, among the most vulnerable. Also Ecuador and Mexico.
Argentina has commitments for this type of humanitarian aid with the Mercosur countries and the states associated with the bloc, such as Chile. In this case, the Argentine government gave assistance to consult and the Chilean government paid the travel expenses.
According to international figures, the arrival of the Taliban to power triggered an exodus in and out of Afghanistan. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assures that more than half a million Afghans have been displaced within the country alone this year. Many Islamic countries or neighboring Afghanistan, with the exception of Iran, refuse to receive Afghans as refugees.
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