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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...n-Taliban-say-Wests-retreat-lesson-world.html
So-called Taliban 2.0 reveals its true colors: Afghanistan's top female cop, 34, goes on the run after 'brutal beating' at the hands of new rulers
- Gulafroz Ebtekar was a deputy head of criminal investigations in the Afghan Interior Ministry
- She was brutally beaten by Taliban fighters at the gate of Kabul airport attempting to secure evacuation
- The policewoman had a notable media presence and is a role model for Afghan women
- She is now 'on the run' and fearing for her life after the final US evacuation flight left earlier this week
- Meanwhile Taliban 'victory' parades took place on Tuesday after the last US troops left the country overnight
- Coffins draped in the UK, US, French and NATO flags were paraded through the streets by the Islamists
- Thousands of people waving Taliban flags turned out to watch, after fireworks were let off in Kabul overnight
- Meanwhile Taliban leaders paraded at Kabul airport alongside troops decked out head to toe in western gear
A top Afghan female cop is on the run after suffering a 'brutal beating' from the Taliban in the latest evidence that the Islamists' harsh rule has returned.
Gulafroz Ebtekar, believed to be 34, was a deputy head of criminal investigations in Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and is seen as a role model for Afghan women with a notable media presence.
She was singled out by the Taliban as a target at the gates outside Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul, where she spent five nights attempting to secure a place on an evacuation flight.
She said: I sent messages to the embassies of many countries to save myself and my family, but all to no avail.'
It comes as Taliban soldiers held mock funerals for Western forces on Tuesday to celebrate the final withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
Gulafroz Ebtekar, believed to be 34, became deputy head of criminal investigations in Afghanistan and is seen as a high-profile role model for Afghan women
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'I had dreamed of changing life in Afghanistan. First, when it comes to women in the police. And I did it.
Gulafroz, the first woman in Afghanistan to graduate from a police academy with a master's degree, told how in the Kabul chaos she found US soldiers and believed they were helping her to fly abroad with her boyfriend and family members.
'We got to the refugee camp where the Americans were stationed,' she said.
'When the American soldiers were already near, I exhaled, I thought we were finally safe.
'I speak a little English. I explained that it was not safe for us to remain in Kabul. They checked our documents. I had my ID, passport, and police certificates with me.
'We were asked: 'Where do you want to go?' I replied: 'It doesn't matter, to a safe country where there is a chance we may survive'.
'They looked at me and answered quite impudently: 'Okay'. And they asked one soldier to show us the way. I thought they would escort us to a plane or provide security.'
They first escorted her to a crowded street where there was a terrorist attack, she said.
'We did not want to leave, then the soldier raised his weapon: 'Get out of here'. So we went out onto the road. At that moment, I didn't want to live anymore.'
Gulafroz had studied for a masters degree at a top police academy in Russia, but the Moscow embassy also declined to help, because she didn't have a Russian passport or residency.
She told the newspaper: 'I had dreamed of changing life in Afghanistan. First, when it comes to women in the police. And I did it.
'When I returned to my homeland, I got a job in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and soon got a rather high position.
'I became Deputy Chief for Criminal Investigations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Afghanistan.'
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After being turned away from the airport, she went home to be told by her mother that the Taliban had come for her while she was out.
She moved to the first of three flats she has used to try and stay out of the hands of the militants.
When she tried to escape to Kabul airport again, the Taliban guards beat her with 'weapons and stones'.
Her former female colleagues in the police have asked her 'what's going to happen to us' but she has no answers.
She said: 'I spoke on television, spoke out on social networks, fought against extremism, terrorism, advocated for the rights of women and children and believed in the best for our country.
She said that her 'former life' was gone, and that six months ago, she'd been 'warned' by the Taliban about her job.
She said: 'The Taliban wrote me letters in which they said that I should not work in the police, that I had no right to declare about women's rights.
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''What are women's rights? Why do you publish your photos on Facebook and Instagram?', these are the comments I received from them a year or six months ago. And now they are in power.'
She warned: 'I think the Taliban will never change. They will not agree for a woman to work, participate in public life, and be free.
'When the Taliban came to Kabul 20 years ago, they made the same promises as now for two months.
'And then they created their own state, their own courts, beat and killed people. For me, this is the most dangerous group of terrorists.'
She said: 'I was the first woman in Afghanistan to graduate from a police academy with a master's degree and hold such a high position.
'After me, about 4,000 Afghan women entered police universities. I'm not afraid to speak openly, because I have nothing left.
'The state of Afghanistan no longer exists, there is no freedom. All the time I fought to maintain a normal life in the country.'
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The Taliban held mock funerals for American, British, French and NATO forces on Tuesday as thousands turned out on the streets of major cities to celebrate the end of the west's 20-year war.
Coffins draped with the US, UK and French flag as well as NATO's insignia were paraded through the streets of Khost by crowds flying the Taliban's emblem - just two weeks after anti-Taliban protests in the same city.
In Kandahar - a traditional stronghold of the Islamists - thousands also turned out waving white Taliban flags to celebrate what the group is referring to as its 'independence day', hours after the final American troops boarded an evacuation flight out of the country.
It comes after celebratory scenes in Kabul overnight, where fireworks exploded and gunfire rattled through the air moments after the final US jet departed.
Speaking from the runway at Kabul airport this morning - and surrounded by Taliban special forces units dressed head to toe in American gear - spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid hailed the 'victory' over western forces.
'It is an historical day and an historical moment.... we liberated our country from a great power,' he added, saying the last 20 years should serve as a 'big lesson for other invaders [and] a lesson for the world.'
Afghan women will be allowed to study at university, but not in the same room as men, the Taliban has declared.
The group's acting higher education minister also said that male teachers will not be permitted to teach female students under new rules.
The announcement comes amid concerns that Afghanistan's return to Taliban rule will curb progress made towards women's rights.
The Taliban is in the process of hammering out a framework for its government, having captured all but one of the country's 34 provinces, but has indicated that it intends to rule based on its interpretation of Sharia law.
The group has been at pains to attempt to reassure Afghan citizens and the international community that it will not return to severely restricting the rights of women, as it did during its previous rule, but many doubt the militants' sincerity.
'The people of Afghanistan will continue their higher education in the light of Sharia law in safety without being in a mixed male and female environment,' Abul Baqi Haqqani, the Taliban's acting minister for higher education, said in a meeting on Sunday, adding: 'men will not be allowed to teach girls.'
Haqqani also explained that changes would be made to the curriculum to 'create a reasonable and Islamic curriculum that is in line with our Islamic, national and historical values, and, on the other hand, be able to compete with other countries'.
