Charlotte Bellis: Pregnant NZ reporter stuck in Afghanistan seeks help from Taliban
A pregnant reporter from New Zealand stranded in Afghanistan is seeking help from the Taliban as she cannot return to her home country due to its strict quarantine system amid the pandemic. Charlotte Bellis said in a column published in The New Zealand Herald that it was “brutally ironic” that she once questioned the Taliban's treatment of women but is now seeking the same fundamentalist group’s help.
"When the Taliban offers you - a pregnant, unmarried woman - safe haven, you know your situation is messed up," Bellis wrote. "I thought back to August, and how brutally ironic it was, that I had asked the Taliban what they would do to ensure the rights of women and girls. And now, I am asking the same question of my own Government," she wrote.
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"I am writing this because I believe in transparency and I believe that we as a country are better than this. Jacinda Ardern is better than this. I am writing this to find solutions for MIQ so that New Zealanders both at home and abroad are safe and protected. I write this for the people who send me messages every day: I need treatment, my father has months to live, I missed my loved one's funeral, I'm in danger, or my visa has expired, I have nowhere to go… …and I've been rejected. I do not have a pathway home," Charlotte Bellis wrote.
In August last year, Bellis was the only female journalist allowed to attend the Taliban's first official press conference. Bellis had back then questioned the Taliban on whether the new regime would respect the rights of thousands of terror-stricken Afghan women. Originally from New Zealand, Bellis has been an Afghanistan correspondent for Al Jazeera, a middle eastern news organization partly funded by the Qatari government, since 2019.
Bellis had appeared composed and measured in footage of the tense event as she introduced herself to Afghanistan's new leaders before asking a rather pointed question. "I want to talk to you about women's rights and girl's rights, about whether women will be allowed to work and if girls will still go to school," she said. "What assurances can you give to women and girls that their rights will be protected?" she had asked.
In response, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid assured reporters that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan would recognize women's rights but only under the framework of Sharia law. "Women will be afforded all their rights. Whether it is at work or other activities because women are a key part of society," Mujahid said. "We are guaranteeing all their rights within the limits of Islam," he added.