‘Ayesha’, woman, thirties, Afghanistan 

TRIGGER WARNING: Gender-Based Violence

Ayesha was a happily married, energetic young mother of four boys when Kabul fell in August 2021. Unfortunately, during the early days of the new Taliban regime, her beloved husband—who had worked for the judiciary under the previous government and therefore was considered an enemy to the Taliban—was murdered at work. 

As she was still grieving the loss of her husband, Ayesha’s in-laws demanded that she marry her violent brother-in-law. She refused. The Taliban then issued a court order commanding her to marry her brother-in-law. She refused again, as she understood the life of abuse she would be relegating herself and her children to. In retaliation, Ayesha was locked in a room in her in-laws’ home, where she endured weeks of beatings, rapes, and sexual assaults. This was a dark, lonely, and isolating time for Ayesha, who wasn’t even allowed to see her sons. Her brother was also summoned to a police station and interrogated and beaten by the Taliban, in an attempt to force him to coerce his sister into marriage. Thankfully, Ayesha was eventually able to briefly gain access to a phone and connect with a shelter for survivors of gender-based violence. By tricking her husband into planning a trip to Kabul, she was able to slip out from under him and move into a safe house. 

Although she and her children were able to escape, the Taliban posted photos in the passport office of Ayesha’s sons, ordering staff not to issue them passports. Only with the help of a specialist organization was she able to safely evacuate to Pakistan with her children. Ayesha was supported by several volunteers (including the Task Force Nyx team) during her stay in Pakistan and was ultimately issued a temporary humanitarian visa to Spain. She spent one year in Spain with her sons before moving to France to live near her brother and his family.

While that year in Spain was difficult in many ways—being a newcomer is a universally challenging experience, and Ayesha was navigating it as a recent widow, GBV survivor and single mother of four—it also gave her some time to heal. She loved spending days at the beach with her boys and delighted in seeing them simply play soccer with other children, free and safe. The ocean's power and beauty helped Ayesha to regain her physical and emotional strength, and regardless of how difficult things felt, she was grounded in the knowledge that she was safe and her children had a future.

Today, reunited with family and living her in country of asylum, Ayesha is eager to learn French and rebuild her life in peace. She plans to access services for survivors of trauma and GBV in her new home city. She believes her sons will have bright futures.