Mahbouba Seraj had what every other Afghan wanted. A US passport and protected passage through the frenzied masses that had descended on Kabul International Airport in late August 2021, desperate to flee Afghanistan and the brutal Taliban regime that had just seized power, following the US withdrawal. But this 73 year old Afghan women’s rights activist refused to leave. Who would protect her girls in the country’s last remaining shelter for abused women? Who would fight for the rights of women who had been promised a future for 20 years only to be abandoned by the West? This is the story of Mahbouba Seraj. A Pashtun with royal lineage named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2021 and shortlisted for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. She believes her responsibility is to help the women of Afghanistan now forced to live with systemic oppression in what is widely considered the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world today.
