Mariam Zalmai Hanafi

I come from a family of feminists. My father has seven daughters. He did everything he could to make it possible for us to study. Despite 40 years of war. Four of us became lawyers. I am one of those four.   

Where oppression and injustice prevail, we have to stand up for freedom and justice. And I think that needs to be more than merely words. It has to be lived out.   

I fought for justice in courtrooms. I represented mothers in divorce proceedings and defended young women who had been wrongfully accused. I refused to remain silent when my clients were insulted by male judges. And because I defended them, I was attacked myself.  

Our work was more than just purely legal work. We educated and informed our clients. What rights do they have? What possibility was there to uphold these rights? There were women who did not realise it is wrong for their husband to beat them. Or that nobody should be able to force them to have children.  

I worked at Medica Afghanistan for twelve years.

Sometimes I think it was the gratitude of all the women I represented, and their quickly uttered prayers, which eventually led to me being rescued? 

August 15, 2021, was a horrible day. I was in my office when the call came in: “The Taliban are here.” Thank God my daughter was with me – she attended the kindergarten at Medica Afghanistan, in the same building. But my son was at school. I took my daughter and ran to the door in order to go and fetch him – but he was standing there. The headmaster had sent him to me. I will never forget the profound sense of relief I felt having them both unharmed with me. 

For five and a half hours we sat in a taxi. The streets were full of people, cars, motorbikes. Driving past the university I saw students running out of the building. Scenes like an apocalypse.  

We managed to get home unharmed, but we were not really safe.

People knew I worked for a women’s rights organisation. I received phone calls from unknown numbers. One male caller asked: “Am I speaking with Mariam?” I replied: “No.” – “But this is your number. Please come to the police station in District 10.” 

The office of Medica Afghanistan was in District 10. In that police station – and in many others – we had our telephone numbers on display to make it easy for women to contact us. I changed the SIM card in my phone so nobody could locate me using my old number. 

medica mondiale was trying to evacuate us as quickly as possible. Soon we realised it would not be possible via Kabul airport. Many with a valid passport tried applying for a visa for one of the neighbouring countries, but a different route opened up to us: my husband, my children and I were able to fly from Mazar-e Sharif to Albania in mid-September.  

Once I got to Tirana, I threw away my phone. I had been in a state of constant alert for six weeks. Six weeks in which I never put my phone down since any moment a message might come in: “It’s happening now.” I simply could not bear to look at the phone anymore. Later I bought a new one. Life does have to go on, after all. And it did go on: within a week we received visas for Germany. Our colleagues at medica mondiale had been working into the evenings phoning around to help us. And while we waited for our onward journey, we received a visit from a colleague at the Kosovan women’s rights organisation Medica Gjakova, who we are closely connected with via medica mondiale. Such great solidarity! 

On November 18, we finally arrived in Germany. It was not easy at first. In Kabul I had my work, my family, my life. In Frankfurt am Main we had an empty room. No bathroom of our own, no children’s doctor when my daughter became ill. In the meantime, we have found an apartment of our own. Our children are going to school. We are settling in. 

I am an Afghan woman, and Afghan women have learned how to keep getting up again. Even if that is difficult to do. It is our confidence in this ability that led us to set up Hami e. V. Hami is another step towards keeping the promise I made as a young law student: I promised myself and all Afghan women I would stand up for their rights.