23岁的Sarina Faizy刚刚从William & Mary毕业,获得了国际法硕士学位,她说她希望能和家人一起庆祝——但她却很难和家人保持联系。
随着美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden月31日的最后期限越来越近,她的家人,包括她的六个姐姐,一直在躲藏,寻找离开阿富汗的方法。
“他们很沮丧,他们有创伤,所有阿富汗人都有,”费兹周一告诉美国广播公司新闻。“现在,他们有点被困在一个地方,他们不知道接下来会发生什么,因为塔利班。”
那是在他们逃往加拿大前不久,就在几天前,喀布尔机场附近发生了一起恐怖袭击,造成至少13名美国军人和170名阿富汗人死亡。
但其他许多人可能没有这么幸运。
8月14日,在美国军队开始撤军后,阿富汗政府崩溃,被塔利班占领,数千人在新政权下几乎得不到保护。
从那以后,人们纷纷撤离帮助过美国人的士兵、人员、承包商和阿富汗公民,以及其他平民。过去两周,约有114,000人被重新安置。
“这是一个错误的、错误的决定,”费兹说,“不仅仅是因为我是一名阿富汗妇女,不,是因为现在...这更像是关于世界的。”
2020年2月,时任总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)与塔利班达成协议,美国将在5月1日前撤军。拜登对此进行了扩展,但费兹表示,这还为时过早。
“20年来,我们奋斗过,我们受苦过,但我们做到了我们曾经取得的一些成就一些好的成就。我不会说一切都很好——我们政府中有腐败的人——但你知道,我们正在前进,”费兹继续说道。“我们用英语说,‘宝贝,我们还没准备好跑。’"
费兹在阿富汗出生和长大,17岁时成为坎大哈市议会中最年轻的女性。她曾在自己的祖国担任女权的主要发言人,现在她担心自己的未来。
她在谈到塔利班时说:“对他们来说,就像,你知道,忍受当时所有的新规则将是如此困难——他们说伊斯兰教法,但这不是伊斯兰教法,这是他们自己的。
2016年,她作为美国国务院国际访问者项目的一部分前往美国,最终她被选入达拉斯为中东女性设立的布什奖学金项目。她说她年轻时在这里的经历和她在阿富汗的经历完全不同。
“我在战争中长大,”她说。在美国,“那个年龄的人,甚至是我这个年龄的人,你知道,他们仍然不考虑这个世界。”
尽管如此,她仍然充满希望。
“阿富汗的好东西是独特的文化,”她说。“无论在什么情况下,我们都将是我们将永远保持这种文化,无论我们去哪里,我们都将永远拥有这种文化,因为它在我们的血液中。”
“我对阿富汗的未来抱有希望...女性新生代,我们还有机会。”
Family of youngest woman elected to Kandahar City Council escapes after Taliban takeover
Sarina Faizy, 23, just graduated from William & Mary with a master's in international law, and she said she'd hoped to celebrate with her family -- instead she's struggling to stay in contact with them.
Her family, including her six sisters, had been in hiding, looking for a way out of Afghanistan as President Joe Biden's Aug. 31 deadline drew closer.
"They're depressed, and they have a trauma, all Afghan people do," Faizy told ABC News on Monday. "Right now, they're kind of stuck in one place, and they don't know what is going to happen next to them because of the Taliban."
That was shortly before they escaped to Canada, mere days before a terror attack killed at least 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans near the airport in Kabul.
But many others may not be so lucky.
On Aug. 14, the Afghan government collapsed, overrun by the Taliban, after the U.S. military started pulling out, leaving thousands in the country with little protection under the new regime.
Since then, there's been a rush to evacuate soldiers, personnel, contractors and Afghan citizens who helped Americans, plus other civilians. Over the last two weeks, some 114,000 people have been relocated.
"This is a wrong, wrong decision right now," Faizy said, "not just because I'm an Afghan woman, no, because right now ... it's like more about the world."
In February 2020, then-President Donald Trump agreed with the Taliban that the U.S. would pull out by May 1. Biden extended that, but Faizy said that's still too soon.
"For 20 years, we struggle, we suffer, but we did we had some achievements some good achievements. I wouldn't say that everything was perfectly good -- we had corrupt people in the government -- but you know, we were moving," Faizy continued. "We said, like in English,' baby steps, we were not ready to run.'"
Faizy was born and raised in Afghanistan, becoming at age 17 the youngest woman elected to the Kandahar City Council. She's served as a leading spokesperson for women's rights in her home country and now fears for their future.
"It's going to be so difficult for them to, like, you know, put up with all new rules of the day -- they say Sharia law, but it's not a Sharia law, it's their own," she said of the Taliban.
She traveled to the United States in 2016 as part of the State Department's International Visitor's Program, and eventually she was selected for the Bush Fellowship program in Dallas for women from the Middle East. She said her experience as a young adult here is worlds different than her experiences in Afghanistan.
"I grew up in the war," she said. In the U.S. "people that age, even my age, you know, people still, like, they don't think about the world."
Still, she remains hopeful.
"The good thing in Afghanistan is the unique culture," she said. "No matter in what situation, we will be we will always keep that culture, no matter where we go, we will always have that culture because it's in our blood."
"I have a hope for a future of Afghanistan ... women in the new generation, we still have a chance."