Afghan Christian convert and former government official Ziba Mastoor says she fled to Qatar earlier this month after Taliban intelligence operatives pursued her from Afghanistan into Pakistan, leaving her dependent on a temporary visa and fearful that deportation could place her life in danger.
Her case reflects the risks confronting Afghan women and members of religious minorities who fled to neighboring countries after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Pakistan and Iran have accelerated the expulsion of Afghans over the past year, raising concerns that vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers could be returned to Afghanistan to face further persecution.
Since retaking power, the Taliban has largely excluded women from public life. Girls are barred from secondary schools and universities, while women have faced sweeping restrictions on employment, travel and access to public spaces. Women who protest have reported arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and prominent Islamic scholars have rejected the Taliban’s restrictions on women as lacking a basis in Islamic law. Rights advocates accuse the Taliban of using a rigid interpretation of Islam to enforce its rule while persecuting religious minorities.
Reports of intimidation, arbitrary detention, violence and discrimination have prompted members of minority communities to flee or conceal their identities.
Mastoor says she held a senior government position during the administration of former President Ashraf Ghani. She told The Media Line that Taliban intelligence operatives targeted her because of her faith and attempted to arrest her during a nighttime raid on her home, but she escaped.
Mastoor alleged that Taliban authorities later issued what she described as a sentence of “stoning to death” because she had converted to Christianity. She said officials also harassed and intimidated her parents while searching for her. The Media Line could not independently verify the existence of such a sentence.
Responding to a question from The Media Line, Mastoor said, “I converted to Christianity in 2019. My faith guided me to make this genuine and personal choice.”
Her parents, who are ethnic Tajik Muslims, opposed her decision, she said.
Persistent harassment by Taliban intelligence operatives eventually forced Mastoor to flee Afghanistan for Pakistan, according to her account. Yet she said she found no lasting safety there and lived alone under the constant threat of forced return.
A trusted contact in Kabul later warned her that Taliban operatives were attempting to locate her in Pakistan, Mastoor said, prompting her to flee again.
She arrived in Qatar on a temporary visitor visa only days ago. Mastoor fears that she could be deported to Afghanistan when the visa expires, which she said would place her life at grave risk.
Afghanistan’s Christian population is believed to be extremely small, and it is difficult to document because believers generally practice in secret. Mastoor estimated that only a few hundred Christians remain in the country.
She has appealed to Christian organizations worldwide for help in preventing her return to Afghanistan.
Fazal Ur Rehman Zadran, a Kabul-based political analyst, told The Media Line that determining the size of Afghanistan’s Christian population was difficult because openly practicing or promoting Christianity is prohibited.
Zadran said that dozens of families from the Hazara Shiite community had converted to Christianity in previous years. Hazaras have long faced persecution, including attacks by the Islamic State group, and he suggested that such experiences may have contributed to some conversions.
After the Taliban returned to power, many Christian families were forced to conceal their religious identities, Zadran said. According to the information available to him, some fled to Pakistan and Iran in disguise.
Stricter deportation policies in both countries have left those families living in hardship and uncertainty, fearful that they could be returned to Afghanistan at any time, he explained.
Qaiser Khan Afridi, a spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan, expressed concern about Pakistan’s policy of deporting Afghan refugees and asylum seekers.
He told The Media Line that while the UNHCR appreciates the people and government of Pakistan for “hosting millions of Afghan refugees with generosity for more than 45 years, despite facing their own economic and social challenges,” refugees should not be compelled to return to a country where their lives or freedom could be endangered.
The UNHCR is particularly concerned about the risks facing women, girls and other vulnerable groups if they are sent back to Afghanistan, he said, and urged Pakistani authorities to ensure that any repatriation is voluntary, safe and dignified.
The Media Line also spoke with Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, who categorically denied that a Christian community exists in Afghanistan.
Because there is no Christian community, Mujahid said, Christians have no official status in the country, and no churches are available for worship. He did not address Mastoor’s allegations concerning her attempted arrest or reported sentence.
‘The international response to Afghanistan’s crisis has been marked by half-measures’
Rebecca Trotter, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based human rights activist, is the co-founder and co-director of Food for Thought Afghanistan, a US and Switzerland-based nongovernmental organization supporting Afghan civil society.
She told The Media Line that “the international response to Afghanistan’s crisis has been marked by half-measures, symbolic gestures, and rhetorical condemnations rather than meaningful action.”
She said that even measures imposed during the Taliban’s first rule have largely not been reinstated, arguing that “the global community’s commitment to defending fundamental human rights stands in stark contrast to the Taliban’s determination to enforce its own agenda.”
Trotter added that she believes the international community would have already openly normalized relations with Afghanistan’s de facto authorities “had it not been for the relentless efforts of Afghan civil society, both inside the country and abroad, to resist such a course.” Genuine international support for those efforts could fundamentally alter Afghanistan’s future, she argued.
According to Trotter, “Food for Thought Afghanistan is working to relocate 60 at-risk Afghan women’s rights activists from Pakistan to safe third countries.” The organization successfully resettled 31 families last year, she said, while the remaining families continue to live in safe houses it established.
She said the organization had also pressed Pakistan to recognize the women’s protection claims under international, Pakistani and Islamic law.
Hadia Sahibzada, the Tehran-based founder of the Afghanistan Women’s Voice Movement and an advocate for Afghan refugees in Iran, told The Media Line that “women’s rights in Afghanistan have become one of the world’s gravest human rights crises.”
Gender apartheid and a blatant violation of fundamental human rights
She described the Taliban’s policies as gender apartheid and a blatant violation of fundamental human rights. Forced deportation places Afghan women at immediate risk of persecution, arbitrary detention, retaliation and severe punishment after their return, she said.
Repeated condemnations by the United Nations and foreign governments have failed to curb the Taliban’s abuses, Sahibzada argued, while the absence of accountability has allowed violations to continue. She called for those responsible to be prosecuted under international law.
Sahibzada also urged governments not to normalize relations with the Taliban. Instead, she called for stronger diplomatic pressure, accountability measures, protection for Afghan women and the immediate reopening of schools and universities to girls.
For Mastoor, those debates are no longer abstract. Her immediate future depends on whether she can secure protection in Qatar or another country before her temporary visa expires. Without a safe destination, she fears that the long journey from Afghanistan through Pakistan may end where it began—under the authority of the Taliban.
