The first female Air Force pilot in Afghanistan’s history spoke out on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday to warn others that the Taliban will “hurt women the most.”
“Unfortunately, my family is still there. And since I have heard what happened in Afghanistan, I cannot sleep, I cannot get my mind together, I am so in fear for their security. And, of course, it hasn’t been only about me,” Rahmani told “Fox & Friends.”
Rahmani, 29, said that her “family and parents are in danger.” Rahmani’s parents have been “targeted by the Taliban” as they have supported her throughout her career.
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The pilot escaped Afghanistan to the U.S. in 2015 after becoming famous for being the first female Afghan Air Force pilot since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Her fame was met with scorn from the Taliban and she said they have been sending her “death threats since 2013.”
Rahmani said that “she does not believe” claims from Taliban leaders that they will respect women’s rights.
“The world will be the witness of the Taliban. They are going to stone a woman in a Kabul stadium again for nothing.”
Even as Afghanistan’s resurgent Taliban pledged to respect “women’s rights” in a propaganda blitz Tuesday, fighters from the group shot and killed a woman in Takhar province after she went out in public without a burqa.
And in Kabul, Taliban vehicles packed with armed militants were recorded on video patrolling residential areas for activists and government workers. Gunshots can be heard as they accelerate down the street.
Longtime Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid held his first news conference Tuesday to state that the extremist group would honor women’s rights — within sharia law. He also claimed that amnesty would be offered to Afghans who had worked for the country’s defunct, U.S.-backed government.
Before the post-9/11 U.S. invasion toppled the Taliban government in 2001, the group severely curtailed women’s freedoms, confining them to their homes without a male chaperone and enforcing strict dress codes.
This week, the Taliban is encouraging women to return to work and girls to go back to school, where headscarves are being handed out, according to The Associated Press. But a damning photo shows a woman in district Taloqan, Takhar province, lying in a pool of blood as her parents and others crouch around her, a pitcher on the ground nearby. She was shot and killed for going out without a burqa.
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Rahmani is working to obtain her citizenship and toward her pilot’s instructor license with hopes to join the U.S. military, according to Fox 13.
Rahmani said that she is “proud” of becoming a pilot and being a “voice for Afghan women.” She said Afghan women are “strong and will always be fighting for their rights.” However, she hopes “somebody will save them from their situation” because she does not believe the Taliban will soften their policies toward women.
“This is a war against women, not against men. … I am just so much in fear for my family that I do not want to put them at risk for what I have done for my country.”
Fox News’ Haroon Janjua and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.