Taliban would kill young men and sexually abuse girls and young women of the family

“We had had heard of cases were the Taliban would kill young men and sexually abuse girls and young women of the family,” she says.

The fears of Fatima and her family were justified. “When [the Taliban] finally came to our village, they wanted to take a young girl with them, but she jumped from the roof of her house and ended her life.”

She says the Taliban fighters would also come into homes and demand that the women cook them food and wash their clothes.

Three days after the Taliban took over Malistan, Fatima escaped. “I walked with my family for one day and night in the mountains to reach Ghazni city. From there we paid a driver three times the [normal] cost to bring us to Kabul,” she says.

Fatima says that all the people from her village, about 50 to 60 families, fled except for the older people, who stayed in the hope of protecting their properties.