Increasing exponentially since 2021: Number of women fleeing Afghanistan has doubled
In Afghanistan, where the Taliban took control in 2021, the number of women fleeing the country is increasing every year due to the many restrictions imposed on them. According to data, while the number of female refugees was 800 thousand in 2020, this figure reached 3.1 million last year.
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There is a significant increase in the number of women fleeing Afghanistan due to the restrictions imposed by the Taliban administration.
The American media outlet CNN reports that since the return of the Taliban, who took control of the country in 2021 following the US withdrawal, the number of female refugees fleeing the country has more than doubled each year.
The report, based on data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), states that the number of Afghan female refugees reached 3.1 million in 2023. This figure, which was 1.2 million in 2021, was around 800 thousand in 2020. It is noted that this is the highest number of Afghan female refugees seen in the last 20 years.
FIRST ESCAPE ATTEMPT OF A FEMALE OFFICER IN JANUARY 2022
The Afghan refugee interviewed by CNN, who shared her name as Fatima, explains that she tried to flee the country three times.
The woman in her 20s, who states that she was serving as an officer in the Afghan National Army when the Taliban took control of the country on August 15, 2021, says she made her first escape attempt in January 2022.
Fatima, who claims that Iranian border guards opened fire on them while she was trying to cross from Afghanistan to Iran with a group fleeing the country, states that she returned to her country. She explains that a month later, she flew to Tehran with a visa she obtained by paying 45 thousand Afghan Afghanis (approximately 21 thousand 500 TL) to an intermediary.
'PROMISE OF ENTRY TO TURKEY FROM SMUGGLERS'
Stating that she made an agreement with smugglers who told her they could get her into Turkey while she was staying in Tehran, Fatima alleges that she was held captive by these individuals. She states that she was beaten by the smugglers and was later detained by the Iranian police and deported to Afghanistan.
3 THOUSAND DOLLAR BRIBE TO THE TALIBAN FOR RELEASE
Fatima says that the bus was stopped by Taliban militants at the Afghan border and that the soldiers held her for three days. The woman, who claims she was interrogated and beaten due to her role in the Afghan National Army, asserts that her family paid a 3 thousand dollar bribe to the Taliban for her release.
Fatima states that she succeeded in fleeing Afghanistan in her attempt last year and rented a room in the city of Quetta in Pakistan.