about my family. early in the morning, when i heard the news, i left the home and came to the airport. it takes a lot of time to get to the plane. it was a really tough time. i received a lot of messages from different friends and people from town that the taliban came to kabul, and most of my friends, they left their houses and they sent a text message to me that, where are you? i was in the airport. it was a really, really difficult time for me. now, kamila, you refer to your friend gayle, who helped make arrangements to get you out, and of course, gayle wrote the book the dressmaker of khair khana, which was about your extraordinary life as a young woman, you set up as a dressmaker and you then found a way to help other women in kabul living under the taliban in the 19905 to make a living out of sewing and dressmaking. yours is an extraordinary story
as you see, women in afghanistan received a lot of support, especially in women s rights and human rights. 0ur expectation was different, that america will continue their support for women, especially for those women, professional women, that have a lot of achievement during 20 years. my expectation was very high that america will stay for some time, especially by the end of the peace negotiation, because right now, women are faced with a lot of challenges and a lot of difficulties in kabul. kamila, i want to end with a thought about the future. right now, it seems there s a split inside afghanistan. former president hamid karzai is, it seems, reaching out to the taliban and wants to pursue negotiations about some sort of political joint venture.
if i ask myself honestly, i m looking for the president, the president that i know he was a different person. he had a different feeling for the country. and he was an honest person. i m looking to find that president where is that president? believe me, because since three years that i was working with her, the corruption and fighting with corruption was the first the first things that we focused a lot. kamila, i don t know whether you had a chance in germany to watch joe biden address the american people, but his message to them was simple that america was no longer prepared to spend blood and treasure propping up an afghan government and an afghan military that was no longer prepared to fight for its own survival. i just wonder what you make of what the americans have done. if i think honestly, my expectation was very high
and different sectors. i m sure, as i have believed, that without women it s not possible to run the country and to be in the politics. in this case, i m very optimistic that educated women will not sit at home this time and they will find their way to work in the government, and also continue their education and go to school. that s very interesting what you re saying, kamila. you re suggesting that afghanistan, its culture, and the role of women, has changed so much in the last two decades that the taliban will simply be unable to turn back the clock? yes. i mean, are you suggesting that women, if they are told to no longer go to work in certain sectors, if the taliban tries to impose controls on women and girls, are you saying that women should resist? as you see the taliban announce
that god gave us this right. i think it s very good news. kamila, sorry to interrupt, but can you take a single word said by a taliban spokesman seriously, given your long experience in the country and your experience of living under taliban rule before? yes, the taliban forget that 50%, or more than 50% of the population of afghanistan, i think it will be a big problem for them, especially the women that are working in the education sector and also in in health. and, right now, they are active in different sectors in afghanistan that will be difficult for them to run the country. so your feeling is that your colleagues, the women you ve worked closely with in the empowerment of women in business, you ve got so many friends and colleagues still in kabul