While women and girls are defending their livelihoods under strict Taliban rule, Aryana Sayeed, the country’s top pop star, has confirmed her war-torn escape from Afghanistan.
Sayeed, 36, who had recently acted as a judge on a singing contest program on Afghan television, told reporters he left on Wednesday via a U.S. cargo plane.
The singer is one of the lucky few, as expatriates from around the world struggle to find flights abroad.
“I’m very much alive and, after a couple of unforgettable nights, I’ve arrived in Doha, Qatar and I’m looking forward to my eventual flight back home to Istanbul,” Sayeed told 1.3 million Instagram followers .
From Doha, she continued to Turkey, where she resides full-time with her husband Hasib Sayed, an Afghan music producer. “After I get home and my mind and emotions return to normal in a world of disbelief and shock, I have many stories to share with you,” she said in her emotional message on social media. .
The Daily Mail reports that Sayeed has been a staunch defender of the Afghan army, before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan earlier this month after a 20-year occupation, leaving room for capture of the Taliban.
Other prominent Afghan women have not been so fortunate, including Hazara district governor Salima Mazari, who was arrested on Wednesday. Many fear that Mazari, who openly criticized the terrorist group, could be executed.
The Mazari family are Shiite Muslims, while the Taliban are Sunnis. The two Islamic denominations have fought the interpretation of their sacred scriptures for centuries.
A spokesman for the militant jihadist group, Waheedullah Hashimi, told reporters on Thursday: “Our ulema (academics) will decide whether or not girls are allowed to go to school. They will decide whether to wear a hijab, burqa or just (in “Veil more abaya or something, or not. It depends on them.”
He added: “There will be no democratic system because it has no basis in our country.”