Image source, @ManizhaBakhtari
In 2021, when the government of then President Ashraf Ghani fell in Afghanistan and the Taliban took over power, Taliban officials asked Maniza Bakhtari to leave her post.
But Afghanistan's Ambassador to Austria Maniza Bakhtari refused to accept this demand of Taliban. For this reason he is also called the 'last ambassador'.
In an interview with BBC News, Maniza Bakhtari told that in the year 2021, when the democratic government of Afghanistan fell and the Taliban came to power, she remained very upset for about 24 hours. During this time she kept thinking about what she should do now.
She says, "The group which we called extremists till a day ago, was now running the country."
'The elected government sent me, why should I leave the post'
Image source: Getty Images
According to Maniza Bakhtari, she felt that because she was a woman, the Taliban government would want to remove her from the post of Afghanistan's ambassador to Austria.
There was also a question in her mind that if she accepted the Taliban's demand and left the post, then what would happen to the embassy and the sensitive documents kept there?
Ultimately he decided to continue in the post.
She says, "I was sent abroad by an elected government to represent my country and the people of Afghanistan. Then why should I step down?"
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Although Taliban officials removed her from her post a few years ago, Maniza Bakhtari still considers herself Afghanistan's ambassador in protest.
She is running the Embassy of Afghanistan in Austria according to her own principles and conditions.
BBC News recently tried to know his story through an interview.
When Maniza Bakhtari had to leave Afghanistan and go to Pakistan
Image Source: Manizha Bakhtari/Facebook
Maniza Bakhtari was born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. She says that the apartment where her family lived was in an area where mostly middle-class families lived.
His father was a well-known poet, writer and thinker of Afghanistan. He was well known in literary and political circles.
She says of her mother, "Although my mother was not very famous in those circles, she was part of the educated society of Afghanistan that embraced modernity. Her clothes were much more modern than other women of that era. She used to do her hair like Audrey Hepburn."
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When asked how the rise of the Mujahideen affected Afghanistan and his family's life, he told that during that period his father was put in jail because of his views.
She says, "I think I was only seven years old at that time. I knew that father was not at home. My mother made up a story that our father had gone to buy toys and clothes for us, but we knew the truth because we would see our mother crying and her eyes red."
Maniza Bakhtari says that when Taliban forces entered Kabul in the 1990s, her father immediately started feeling threatened. He decided that he should leave the country as soon as possible.
His father wanted to take him and his sister along with him, but by then Maniza was married and had her own family. That's why she stayed in Afghanistan.
In 1996, when the Taliban captured power in Afghanistan for the first time, her husband also took a big decision to leave the country. One reason for this was seeing the dead body of former Afghan President Najibullah hanging in the square.
Pakistan migration and difficult journey
Maniza Bakhtari says, "If my father had not left the country, he would have met the same fate as Najibullah."
He told that considering the situation, like thousands of other people, he also decided to leave Afghanistan and go to Pakistan.
During the trip to Pakistan, Bakhtari was very worried about her children. She says, "We had to leave in a minibus with many other people. There were so many of us crammed into that small van that it became almost impossible to breathe."
Bakhtari says that when they reached the border, no one there had a passport.
According to him, after reaching Pakistan, he had enough money to survive for the first few months. Later his relatives living abroad helped him.
Return to Kabul and job in Foreign Ministry
The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent attack on Afghanistan by America and Britain led to the fall of Taliban power. After this, like many other refugees from Afghanistan living in Pakistan, Maniza Bakhtari also decided to return to her country.
She calls it one of the best moments of her life. "It was like a magical experience," she says.
Maniza tells that she was teaching at that time when she was contacted by the Foreign Ministry of Afghanistan.
She says, "At that time, I was a lecturer at Kabul University and was also working with a non-governmental organization (NGO). Then I got a call from the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan."
According to her, at that time the Ministry of External Affairs was trying to include young women in its team. The reason for this was that during the Taliban rule, many women had left the country and did not want to return.
For Maniza, working in the Foreign Ministry was like a big test.
She says, "Today I don't regret that decision, but it was not easy. I had to leave teaching, be away from my students and also give up my childhood dream."
Taliban returns to power
In 2021, when the Taliban once again captured Kabul, Maniza Bakhtari was Afghanistan's ambassador to Austria.
She says this was a time when she had to take a morally clear stand and take a difficult decision.
She says, "I could not believe how all this happened in Afghanistan. Even on the day President Ashraf Ghani left the country, I felt that this could not happen."
After the fall of the government, many diplomats posted abroad were also facing a situation of uncertainty.
"I spent 24 hours wondering what I should do? Should I pack up and leave and ask my colleagues to do the same?"
'I will not surrender to Taliban'
According to Maniza, after this Taliban officials contacted him. He said he wanted to hold a meeting on Zoom with all the diplomats. But Maniza refused to attend this meeting.
She says that in 2022, she received a letter from the Taliban government, in which she was informed about her removal from the post.
He had a lot of support and the international community did not recognize the Taliban government as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Maniza decided to continue working in his post in protest.
She says, "I felt that now I am running this embassy according to my terms and my principles. I will not surrender to the Taliban."
Published by Collective Newsroom for the BBC.
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