'Until we meet again': Afghan woman filmmaker shares heartbreaking post on being forced to flee Kabul

Afghan filmmaker and photographer Roya Heydari has shared a heartbreaking post on being forced to flee her homeland. Heydari said she left her homeland to continue having a voice.

In her tragic post, Heydari added that she will have to start from zero again after leaving her motherland. She said that she took “only my cameras and a dead soul with me across an ocean. With a heavy heart, goodbye motherland. Until we meet again”. The post, which has gone viral on social media, encapsulates the threats faced by Afghan women after the Taliban’s takeover of the country. Heydari has received thousands of messages of support from all over the world. Women are increasingly fearful that the group’s return to political power also indicates a return to the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law. When the group was in control of Afghanistan from 1996-2001, it had imposed several harsh restrictions on women. Women were forbidden from working, getting an education, and even stepping outside their homes without a male guardian. Though the insurgent group has promised ‘ amnesty ’, invited women to join the government, and promised media freedom to journalists, the actions of its members tell a different story. Media persons have been targeted in recent days. Ziar Khan Yaad, a journalist from TOLO TV, the country’s biggest private broadcaster, was beaten up by Taliban members. Taliban fighters had killed and injured two family members of one of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s Afghan journalists, who is presently based in Germany. The insurgent group had recently declared that female government workers should stay at home until security conditions improve. The sharp divide between the words and actions of the Taliban is what led Heydari to flee from Kabul. Currently, in France, she said her biggest fear was not death, but “being caged" and being unable “to go outside and continue my work”. She added that she would come back if the group can assure her that she can keep working.