Zarifa: A woman's battle in a man's world by Zarifa Ghafari and Hannah Smith

There have been a number of recent biographies/ autobiographies of inspiring women leaders; I’m thinking of Becoming by Michelle Obama (2021), Know your place by Golriz Ghahraman (2020), Jacinda Ardern by Madeleine Chapman (2020), The last girl by Nadia Murad (2017), Hillary by Karen Blumenthal (2016). The latest is Zarifa, Zarifa Ghafari’s account of her struggles against the brutally oppressive patriarchal system in Afghanistan. She was born in 1994 in the time of her country’s civil war, and raised during the Taliban’s first regime, and yet she became a radio broadcaster and the first female mayor of Wardak province, west of Kabul, fearlessly confronting male prejudice and determined to stamp out the corrupt practices of the past.

It was not without cost. There were numerous attempts on her life, and one incident left her horrifically scarred on her hands and her feet following an explosive fire in her home. But the worst was the murder of her father. Finally with the withdrawal of American troops, and the takeover by the Taliban, Zarifa and members of her family joined the throngs of people desperately clamouring at the gates to the airport. But once her family was safely housed in Germany, Zarifa felt compelled to return to her country to continue her work to help empower women and children suffering in poverty.

It is the story of a very brave and determined woman; she learnt icy detachment, and the ability to control her anger, to put her arguments forcibly, with an appearance of confidence and entitlement. Many times she challenged the thinking of men used to infantilising and disregarding women. She encourages other women to ‘take courage, and push back the boundaries, little by little’. She says  that she knows ‘we will win, eventually, because women can no longer be ignored in Afghanistan…
I will keep reminding women that they have a voice, and can raise it.’

Zarifa Ghafari received the 2022 International Women’s Right Award at the United Nations Geneva Summit, among other awards and accolades. But, movingly, she remembers the whisper of an Afghani worker at Kabul airport ‘So many of us are proud of you’.

Themes: Afghanistan, Taliban, Women, Human rights, Activism.

Helen Eddy