A female doctor has won insurgents’ respect by treating their female family members.
By Pamela Constable Pamela Constable Foreign correspondent covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Asia, Latin America and immigration Email Bio Follow March 13 at 6:00 AM Kabul — Several months ago, Taliban insurgents in western Faryab province stopped a young woman driving back to college, where she was a pharmacy student. They ordered her to go home and not resume her studies, or they would burn down her family’s house. The frightened student and her companions complied.
Roshanak Wardak, 56, a physician and former member of parliament, operates a private women’s clinic in Wardak province, about 50 miles south of Kabul, which has been largely under insurgent sway for a decade. She regularly treats the wives or daughters of local Taliban members at no cost; in return, they allow her to travel freely and take her views seriously.
“We had a very bad experience with Taliban in the past, so we can’t believe them now,” said Robina Hamdard, 30, of the nonprofit Afghan Women’s Network. As a girl, she recalled hiding her notebooks on the way to a private class and running in terror from Taliban police at a forbidden picnic. “We are not the same women of 20 years ago,” she said. “We know our rights, and we will fight not to lose them.
“People are fed up with Daesh. They harassed women and sometimes took them as booty,” said Muhammad Hijrat, a former official in the Pachiragam district of Nangahar province. The Taliban, he said, tells people not to work for the government or foreign groups, but “many people here have open sympathy for them, and each family offers them one son” to help keep the area secure.
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