The 36 years old Afghanistan’s popular pop star, Aryana Sayeed, who escaped safely from Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul, has exposed the real face of the Taliban to the world.
“I hope the world realizes that this is not the changed or new Taliban,” she said, adding that this was the same Taliban that had ruled Afghanistan from 1996 till 2001 when the terror attacks led to the US-led invasion. She demanded the world community not to recognize the new Taliban regime because they don’t treat people especially women humanly.
She has expressed her gratitude towards the Indian government for extending support to the citizens of Afghanistan and blamed Pakistan for empowering the Taliban which has left Afghanistan ruined.
“I do blame Pakistan. Over the years, we have seen videos, seen evidence that Pakistan is behind empowering the Taliban. Every time our government touches the Taliban, the identification reveals him to be a Pakistani person. So it is very obvious that I (would) blame them and hope that they would back off and would not interfere in the politics of Afghanistan anymore,” Sayeed said.
The pop singer, having around 1.4 million Instagram followers, has often dared Islamic fundamentalists by raising the voice for women through music and otherwise, public singing and her figure-hugging clothes. She had launched her own fashion brand in Kabul even if the ghost of Taliban was showing signs of return.
She never wanted to leave her country but she felt like a prisoner and there was definitely no space for her in Afghanistan because the Taliban was thirsty for her blood.
She recollected that when she was trying to escape from Afghanistan there was absolute chaos at the Kabul airport. She was wearing an all-enveloping veil to hide her identity. She shivered if she is caught alive by Talibanis and then she requested her fiancé Hasib Sayed to shoot her in her head if she is about to be taken away alive.
She and her fiancé Hasib Sayed first attempted to escape from Afghanistan on August 15 as they had made reservations on a commercial flight. But the overloaded plane could not take off. She said that there was total chaos at the airport. People desperate to leave the country were pushing each other. Children, babies, women were fainting because of a lack of oxygen and space.
Both left the airport and took shelter with their relatives in Kabul. The next day Sayeed again went to the airport, wearing a veil with her young cousin as if they are a family on outing. Somehow she crossed all five Taliban check-posts undetected and reached the U.S. military-controlled airport. Sayeed was recognized by an Afghan citizen working as a translator for the Americans who told U.S. officials to save her life.
The ordeal finally ended and the couple flew out on a U.S. military plane on August 17. The couple made their way to Doha, Kuwait and the US, eventually returning to the flat they had in Istanbul.
Taliban had ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 when this radical outfit had perpetrated atrocities in the name of Islamic law.
Sayeed said that the women of Afghanistan are not the same women they were 20 years ago and they are definitely not going to accept this fundamentalist Islam.
