Zarifa Ghafari is a human rights activist living in exile. Days after the Taliban swept back into power on August 15, Ghafari, one of Afghanistan's first female mayors, fled with her family to Germany. As a young reformist politician in a conservative provincial capital southeast of Kabul, Ghafari faced severe opposition and survived several assassination attempts. The 29-year-old's father, an Afghan army colonel, was fatally shot outside his house a year ago. In 2020, she received the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award. Ghafari in exile told the Voice of America’s Afghanistan service: “I hope to raise the unspoken voice of Afghan women throughout the world.”