The men who showed up where Sabera was hiding in Afghanistan on October 8 claimed they were with UNICEF and there to help. .She was overjoyed. Finally, someone responded to her desperate e-mails sent to organizations — and even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — pleading to be rescued..They weren’t with UNICEF. They were Taliban savages seeking to punish the journalist and activist working on behalf of the persecuted Hazara ethnic group, minority Shi’as in a predominantly Sunni-Muslim country..“They forcibly tied my husband’s arms and legs and threw my children in the bush. Three men raped me in front of my husband. I was screaming and crying in pain and my husband was beaten and fainted. From that moment I could not look into my husband’s eyes,” says Sabera, living in terror since the Taliban took control in August..Those four children, aged 10 to 11 months, could hear their mother’s screams and father’s agonized groans. Imagine that..The Taliban let Sabera live to suffer the torment and shame of what they did to her. If they find her again, these devils might not be so benevolent..“I cannot forget what they did,” she told Western Standard in a phone interview from her hideout in Afghanistan..Sabera hasn’t received medical attention for injuries she still suffers from being gang-raped. She neither has money to pay a doctor nor can risk going out..Since the Taliban seized power after U.S. forces pulled out, violence against journalists and their families escalated. They’re ruthlessly targeted in door-to-door searches. Some fled Afghanistan. About a dozen were murdered. Countless others are beaten or jailed. All are hunted. One, giving in to despair, killed himself..“It was a remote place… We had nothing to defend (ourselves) with. I don’t know how they found our place,” says Sabera, whose last name is being withheld to protect her..She suspects an e-mail she wrote was forwarded to the Taliban. .“No one is trusted here. The people here sell and kill innocent people for money.” .“We are killed for many crimes under Taliban law,” says Sabera, targeted especially for being a female journalist, and Hazara, an ethnic group despised by the predominantly Pashtun Taliban..Sabera sent a photo of herself, which has been blurred to protect her. The despair on her face is haunting..After the attack, Sabera’s family fled to another hideout which they soon must leave. To go where? They don’t know..“Tears come to my eyes again. I cried so much that it was morning. My heart was so bloody that I worked for human rights. I regret (doing it). My husband’s soul is tired. I hope we will be saved,” she said Friday..“We are an oppressed, helpless, displaced, wandering family for three months. My children are shivering from the cold with a hungry stomach. My family and I will die of cold and hunger. Or the Taliban terrorist group will find us, then history will tell everyone could help, but no one did.”.“We have nothing. Is suicide the best thing I can do? Or (can you) introduce me to an institution that has the ability to get me out of the hell of Afghanistan?” .Therein, lies the problem..Journalists were encouraged, emboldened when the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taliban. When the last of the NATO troops pulled out and the Afghan national Army fled, journalists were on their own, in peril, with no one to advocate for them..Sabera sent an e-mail to Trudeau pleading for help. She didn’t get a response. The Canadian government has been grossly negligent in a promise made to Afghans — if necessary, we’ll get you out — who helped our military between 2001-2104..Thousands remain trapped. The Veterans Transition Network (VTN) set up an emergency fund, with about $3 million in donations from private citizens and corporations, to evacuate Afghans and protect them in safe houses at a cost of about $20,000 a day..Those funds ran out Friday and most of the 1,700 Afghans VTN has been helping will be forced onto the streets..Eleanor Taylor, a retired Canadian lieutenant-colonel is chief of staff at Aman Lara, an organization operating these safe houses under the VTN’s umbrella. .She’s volunteered tirelessly on behalf of Afghans who stood beside the Canadian military..Although Sabera doesn’t fall into this category, Taylor took the time to pass her information along to a group that might be able to help..“We can no longer afford our safe-houses so I cannot offer her accommodation.”.The alternative is to find donors to pay for safe housing at a rate of $58US per day. .Sabera says under the Taliban, repression of religious and ethnic groups will continue..“They have no mercy. Humanity and rights do not make sense here,” she said..“Please, please, please help us so that the future of my children will not be like mine. You are my only hope.”.Anyone wishing to donate to VTN can do so here: https://vtncanada.kindful.com/?campaign=1143780.LATER TODAY: What the Canadian government is doing to help. (Hint: It’s not much.).Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard.lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com
