Online petition seeking asylum for Afghan women gets 3L signatures

‘Made plea in memory of cousin who was killed by Taliban’

Adeeba Qayoumi, a 21-year-old woman who fled to India from Herat, Afghanistan, in 2019, has started an online petition in memory of her 29-year-old cousin Farishta — a civil rights activist killed by the Taliban last year.

As of Friday evening, the online petition, which urges the Central government to grant asylum to women and children who are fleeing Afghanistan, had received over three lakh signatures.

Speaking to The Hindu about her cousin, who she lost to the Taliban, Ms. Qayoumi said: “She [Farishta] was a civil rights activist and always raised her voice for the rights of women and children. Even while many of us left, she continued to stay in Afghanistan and kept raising her voice. That is why the Taliban shot her. Even her brother got shot while he was trying to save her.”

With Kabul falling to the Taliban, people are now reminded of events that took place two decades back when the country was under the strict Taliban regime, she said.

‘People staying indoors’

“People are so afraid that they are almost behaving as if a lockdown has been imposed. This is happening because people know how the Taliban can behave and to what extent they can go. People are afraid that the same things will be repeated and hence, they are choosing to remain indoors. It is becoming worse by the day. All my relatives and friends are also trying to desperately leave Afghanistan,” said Ms. Qayoumi, who now works as a translator in Delhi.

“I appeal to all governments to give these people asylum if possible, especially to the women and children who are not safe in Afghanistan. In India we are safe even though a lack of identity sometimes becomes a barrier in getting employment,” she said.

Once an MBBS student at Herat University, Ms. Qayoumi said: “I had to leave Afghanistan because my mother, who is also a civil rights activist was receiving death threats from the Taliban. I had to leave my childhood and my entire life there and come to India. When I see doctors these days, I often ask myself why did this have to happen to me? Even you could have become a doctor Adeeba if things were different. I tell myself.”

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