Over the past few months, I have worked on a couple stories about female Afghan migrants in the U.S. Through this reporting, I have learned more about the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s rights, and especially its exclusion of women from education and sports. The Taliban’s current limitations on women’s rights constitute what Metra Mehran, an Afghan activist living in Virginia, has called “gender apartheid.” Yet the international community has failed to intervene in the Taliban’s human rights abuses.

As women flee this oppressive regime, they face new restrictions on immigration. Germany is a salient example. In July, the country suspended humanitarian admissions for Afghans, leaving many left stuck in Pakistan, where they had been waiting for visas and flights out. Germany resumed deportations to Afghanistan, and in July, sent 81 Afghans to their home country after rejecting their asylum applications. This was the second deportation since the Taliban took over in 2021.

Those deported from Western countries may face new risks in Afghanistan, said Wahid Wafa. Contact with the West may be grounds for the Taliban’s persecution. These vulnerabilities are heightened for Afghan women, especially those who have engaged in activities that are banned at home, like sports. In Berlin, I hope to follow the stories of women who face the risk of deportation. I am especially interested in the situation of high-profile women who faced persecution in Afghanistan before immigrating.

Nazira Khairzad was a goalkeeper for the Afghan women’s national team before fleeing the country in 2021. Khairzad immigrated to Italy and moved near Frankfurt in 2024. Her family eventually joined her, including her sister. The sisters, Nazira and Nazima, were both athletes in Afghanistan, despite the dangers women in sports faced. Though reunited, they confront new challenges in Germany. Today, Nazira may face deportation to Italy. In April, DW reported that “Nazira’s deportation back to Italy is therefore likely to stand.” There has not been anything published about her since then, and I am interested in finding out where she is now.

Nazira recently gave me her number via Instagram and we are in touch on WhatsApp. I hope to follow her story, exploring the broader vulnerabilities Afghan women face in Germany. While in Berlin, I will conduct interviews with Afghan women, German politicians, activists, and refugee support organizations. This story will be about one family’s struggles to escape persecution in Afghanistan. More broadly, it will focus on the way anti-immigrant sentiment enables the Taliban’s human rights abuses. As follows is a list of potential sources.

 

  • Metra Mehran, activist and policy advisor for the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council (Virginia – remote interview)
  • Elke Gabsa, Nazira Khairzad’s lawyer (Giessen, Germany)
  • Berenice Bohlo, immigration lawyer (Berlin)
  • Tobias Jung or Emily Barnickel – Hardship advisers at the Flüchtlingsrat Berlin (Berlin Refugee Council), an organization’s aiming to protect the right to asylum and refugee protection and eliminate state discrimination.
  • Mawluda Akbari – researcher focusing on women’s rights at the Afghan Research Hub in Berlin. Also does volunteer work for local refugees.
  • Waheed Rafie – Afghan writer in Berlin with a wide network of Afghans in Germany

 

AfD Questions

  • AfD has connected immigration to high rents, housing shortages, and bad schools. Can you explain this connection?
  • Afghan migrants who are deported face persecution in their home country for contact with the West. How, if at all, does AfD plan to protect people who are deported from violent regimes such as the Taliban?