“The stressful part really was around the border, there were a lot of Taliban in the area, they were not allowed to leave the shelter and we were very stressed that someone might find them,” he said.
Israeli aid workers met the escapees in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, and on Sept. 6, they boarded a jet bound for the UAE, chartered by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams.
UAE communications official Afra Al Hameli shared an image of their arrival on Twitter.
Working alongside international partners ?????? to ensure that those in need may reach safety, the #UAE has welcomed 41 #Afghan?? evacuees, including vulnerable members from the Afghan girls’ cycling &robotic teams, as well as at-risk human rights activists &their family members. pic.twitter.com/4k0Sbgg7EJ
— Afra Al Hameli (@AfraMalHameli) September 6, 2021
Girls were prohibited from attending school when the Taliban were last in power, from 1996-2001, with women banned from work and education.
On Friday, reports emerged that the women’s ministry in Kabul had been converted to house the “Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” which had previously run a feared police force that implemented the Islamist group’s brutal interpretation of sharia.