Ukraine’s women wage war on Russia as mothers, breadwinners and soldiers

Last summer, Kateryna Zarembo gave up an academic career in political science to volunteer as a paramedic on Ukraine’s front lines.

She served in rotations lasting two or four weeks, allowing her time to raise her four children aged three to 12. Weeks after United States President Donald Trump’s inauguration, she decided to enlist.

“I think what Donald Trump is doing right now is not just retreating from Europe. It is actually, possibly harming Ukraine in the battle against Russia. It is actually creating an autocracy in real time,” she said.

Kateryna Zarembo is worried that US President Donald Trump’s policies on Ukraine will further imperil the country [Courtesy: Kateryna Zarembo]

It was, for Zarembo, a “reminder of our absolutely, existentially crucial self-reliance”.

“I was thinking, the future of Ukraine is in the hands of Ukraine’s army, and that’s why I have to be part of the professional community, not just a volunteer,” she told Al Jazeera.

Zarembo’s Hospitallers Medical Battalion, which gives the wounded their first pre-hospital treatment a few kilometres from the line of contact, and evacuates them, consists mostly of women and is an example of how they are playing a growing role in Ukraine’s defence.

Women in Ukraine’s 900,000-strong armed forces have climbed from 52,000 at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than three years ago, to more than 70,000 today.

More than 20,000 are in combat roles, and 5,500 are fighting in the trenches.

“We don’t have compulsory conscription for women. All joined voluntarily for different reasons,” parliamentarian Yevheniia Kravchuk told Al Jazeera. “Some come from military families. I know one who stepped in after her father was killed and others do it for a brother killed, for revenge.”

Zarembo’s family demonstrates how the war is gradually consuming all of Ukrainian society.

Her husband is now a military technology contractor to the government.

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Yevheniia Kravchuk, a politician, said some women step in on the front lines ‘for revenge’ for their killed male relatives [Courtesy: Yevheniia Kravchuk]

Her children understand there is always the danger a Russian drone could slip past electronic jammers to where Zarembo treats wounded soldiers.

“Those who are smaller, the three- and five-year-olds, they just cling to my legs, and don’t want to hear about [my] going,” she said. “And the bigger ones who understand more, they worry and they say that they will miss me, and also kind of protest in their own way.”

The Orobets household’s perspective on the future is similarly transformed.

Lesya Orobets’ husband is fighting on the front lines, leaving her to run the family engineering business.

“His salary we donated to his regiment, to his cause,” she explained to Al Jazeera.

During a leave of absence a few months ago, the parents gathered their two teenage daughters around the kitchen table.

“We were discussing their future professions, and we came up with the suggestion that besides a civilian profession everyone should choose for themselves, they also need to have some military skills, depending on their talents and their interest,” Orobets said.

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Lesia Orobets has told her teenage daughters they ‘need’ to have military skills, amid fears of increased conflicts in the future [Courtesy: Lesia Orobets]

“It looks like the future decade would probably be the decade of wars. And in order to be able to protect your country and yourself, you have to be useful no matter the gender.”

Both girls have been learning how to shoot from an early age. The eldest is thinking of becoming an aerospace engineer.

A decade ago, she would not have been able to do that.

Official records show that when Russia annexed Crimea and sent troops into eastern Ukraine in 2014, women played only supporting roles.

“In 2014 … women who wanted to take combat positions as snipers and [operating] grenade launchers could not officially hold these positions, so they were put down as cooks and medics but were actually doing the combat role,” said Kravchuk, the parliamentarian. “They called themselves ‘the invisible battalion’. It took years to change that.”

In 2017, women were made eligible for combat roles and all ranks of the military, elevating them above menial tasks that carried the lowest pay, rank and status.

“That was not just opening new opportunities for women, but naming them by … posts they were actually fulfilling,” said Orobets.

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Olena Tregub is the head of Ukraine’s Anticorruption Commission [Courtesy: Olena Tregub]

Days before Russia’s full-scale invasion began, the parliament, Verkhovna Rada, expanded the list of professions whose female employees had to register with the armed forces for possible conscription. A thousand women enlisted immediately.

Today, women serve as snipers, drone operators, fighter pilots, and artillery operators, in special operations and in air defence. Some 1,500 have received medals. Five have received the highest honour, the Hero of Ukraine medal.

The recognition has led to changing perceptions of women’s roles.

On November 17, Nataliya Grabarchuk became an overnight hero when, on her first day as an anti-aircraft gunner, she destroyed a Russian cruise missile using a Man-Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS).

Orobets founded The Price of Freedom, an NGO that designed Sky Shield, a proposed air defence umbrella for Ukraine enlisting Ukrainian and European air forces.

Women’s growing role in intelligence, national security and defence has also been accompanied by their growing role in governance, said Olena Tregub, the head of Ukraine’s Anticorruption Commission.

She rattled off a list of transparency bodies headed by women – including the Military Ombudsman, the anticorruption task force within the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Strategic Industries responsible for defence production.

“All these women came during war,” Tregub said, and were helping direct resources where they needed to go.

Women also became the visible international advocates for weapons and financial aid at the request of former commander in chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, because conscription for them was voluntary and they were allowed to leave the country, said Tregub.

Women have also shouldered a growing burden in keeping the economy afloat.

The government pays to re-qualify women in a list of professions like truck drivers, tractor drivers, trolley drivers, and anything connected to construction such as electrical and plumbing work, said Kravchuk.

Last year, women qualified for 61 percent of loans to open small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine, and established 59 percent of them.

Women’s advance in all these roles is connected to the perception that all of society is at stake.

“We fight against our children being deported to Russia and being raised as Russians, and we fight against our women being raped and killed. And of course, against everyone being killed,” said Zarembo, referring respectively to Ukrainian allegations of the forcible transfer of children to Russia without familial consent and of Moscow’s forces committing sexual assault and other war crimes.

Why is Trump ‘very angry’ with Putin and who will secondary tariffs hurt?

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, said on Sunday that he was “p***** off” with Vladimir Putin and that he would impose additional sanctions on the sale of Russian oil if he refused to ratify a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump’s attitude changed significantly since his first statement, which was made in January. He has been open to negotiations over peace with Moscow.

What Trump’s threat may involve, what it means, and why it is significant for Putin’s war on Ukraine and for Russian oil-sustaining nations.

Trump’s comments on Putin: what did they say?

Trump reportedly expressed his “p***** off” and “very angry” at Putin’s questioning of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy in an interview with NBC on Sunday.

According to Trump, any attempt to oust Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s leader would unavoidably make the situation less likely to end.

Trump did state that Putin was aware of his anger toward him. He claimed that Putin and he shared a “very good relationship” and that if he does what he says is right, the anger would quickly dissipate.

What was Zelenskyy’s fate, according to Putin?

According to Putin, Zelenskyy lacked the authority to sign a peace treaty.

Since the 2014 overthrow of Moscow-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych, who the Kremlin claims had US support, the Russian leader has frequently made accusations that the Ukrainian government is illegitimate.

Putin made the suggestion on Thursday that Ukraine should have a temporary administration under the auspices of the UN. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the UN rejected this suggestion.

In 2019, Zelenskyy sworn in for a five-year term as Ukraine’s president. Following Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a war broke out. Ukraine’s constitution prohibits holding elections under martial law conditions, and the country was supposed to have presidential elections in 2024, but the country has since been declared martial due to the conflict.

The American leader recently did the same thing when Trump has now criticized Putin for denying Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as Ukraine’s president.

In a post on his Truth Social platform in February, Trump called Zelenskyy “A Dictator without Elections” amid tensions with the Ukrainian leader, &nbsp.

How far along are diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine?

Trump vowed to put an end to the Ukrainian conflict during his campaign for president.

US negotiating teams have met in Saudi Arabia more than once to discuss peace arrangements since he was inaugurated. Since then, Trump has spoken with Zelenskyy and Putin separately.

On March 25, the three sides came to a decision to stop using military force in the Black Sea. Additionally, they both agreed to put a 30-day stop to energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine. However, both sides have alleged that they are attacking energy facilities and have violated this.

A 30-day total ceasefire on land and sea has been agreed upon by Ukraine and the US, but it needs to be approved by Russia. Putin has not approved this proposal, citing concerns that Ukraine might use the time to arm itself, including with supplies of cutting-edge Western weapons, and recruit more soldiers in a country with a manpower shortage.

What threat did Trump make, and how will it be implemented?

If Trump finds Moscow to be accountable for failing to reach a ceasefire agreement, he has threatened “secondary tariffs” on Russian oil.

In a televised interview with NBC, Trump said, “I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming from Russia” if Russia and I are unable to reach a resolution about stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, which it might not be.

“You could not conduct business in the United States if you bought oil from Russia,” the statement read. A 25-point, 25-point, and 25-point tariff will be applied to all oil.

It’s unknown whether these threats will put pressure on Russia, according to Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London.

Giles remarked that Trump’s sporadic threats to impose some sort of economic pressure on Russia “never last long,” adding that if Trump were to put pressure on Moscow rather than Kyiv, they would be a “radical departure” from his previous policy toward the conflict.

Giles remarked, “Putin knows that this threat is not dead, but the previous ones have been,” adding that.

Secondary tariffs: what are they?

Trump’s use of “secondary tariffs” implies tariffs on imports from nations that purchase Russian oil.

The US has long spearheaded campaigns involving what are known as secondary sanctions, which apply to nations that engage in trade with sanctioned nations. For instance, US sanctions are in place for purchasing Iranian oil or other heavy military equipment from Russia; this includes countries, businesses, and individuals who trade these goods.

Most global banks and financial institutions do not want to risk losing out on business in the US because of secondary US sanctions.

Secondary tariffs, in contrast, have not been thoroughly tested as a phenomenon. Trump also placed a 25% secondary tariff on US imports from nations that import Venezuelan oil and gas.

Which nations could be impacted by Trump’s secondary tariffs?

India and China could suffer the most from additional tariffs imposed by Trump on Russian oil.

The two biggest buyers of inexpensive Russian crude are China and India.

In 2024, Russian oil accounted for 35% of India’s total crude imports, while it accounted for 19% of China’s crude imports. Additionally, Turkey imports Russian oil, accounting for 58% of its refined petroleum imports in 2023.

How much would China, India, and Turkiye suffer from secondary tariffs?

It’s unclear whether Trump’s tariffs would be incorporated into existing tariffs or to be combined with those that are already in place.

China’s largest export market is located in the US. In 2024, China sold goods worth $463bn to the US. Trump has already imposed 20% tariffs on all Chinese imports.

India’s top export market is also the US. In the US, Indian exports surpassed $91 billion in 2024. Trump has, however, criticized India’s high import tariffs.

The exposure to Turkiye is comparatively low. After Germany, the US has the second-largest export market, accounting for $ 17 billion in 2024.

Trump has threatened reciprocal, tit-for-trade tariffs on all US trading partners starting on April 2.

And if Trump actually represses nations that purchase Russian oil, India in particular might find itself under scrutiny. Because of its longstanding accusations of buying subordinated Russian oil, refining it, and selling it to the West, India, which has 22 oil refineries, including Gujarat’s largest in Jamnagar, has long been accused of doing so, effectively assisting Moscow in thwarting Western sanctions.

According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), India exported $55.8 billion worth of refined oil products like gasoline and diesel to nations like the US, the UK, France, and Belgium in 2023.

According to OEC data, India exports 7.5 percent of US oil as of 2023, trailing only behind Canada.

India has long argued that by purchasing Russian oil, it has freed up crude from other sources, including those from the Middle East and Africa, for Western countries to purchase, thereby regulating global oil prices. Every country would have to scramble for limited supplies of crude from elsewhere, which would increase prices if Russia, a major producer, were no longer available to anyone.

Netanyahu nominates new Israeli spy chief despite court order

Despite the court-barbaric ruling, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a former Navy commander to lead the nation’s domestic security services.

The organization, which prevents attacks from abroad and at home, including by armed groups based in Palestine and Lebanon, was nominated by Netanyahu’s office on Monday, with the announcement that he had nominated Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit to lead it. The Supreme Court has nevertheless ordered Ronen Bar to be fired as head of Shin Bet.

The prime minister acknowledged Sharvit’s expertise when he claimed he had been chosen after conducting “in-depth interviews with seven respectable candidates.”

Sharvit, who had served in the military for 36 years, “managed complex operations against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran” according to the statement.

The announcement comes as far-right members of Netanyahu’s government coalition work to get the removal of Bar done.

Following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1, 139 people and about 250 others, Netanyahu announced in late March that he no longer had faith in the Shin Bet chief.

However, the government reacted to the firing of Bar, which caused widespread protests. The decision was allegedly motivated by political bias, according to critics, who claimed Shin Bet was looking into possible corruption among the prime minister’s close advisers.

Bar instead pointed the finger at the government instead of refuting Bar’s claim that the Shin Bet was to blame for the security failure on October 7.

The Supreme Court halted the dismissal pending further appeals before a hearing is scheduled for April 8. Following the filing of petitions by Israel’s opposition and nongovernmental organizations, a hearing is scheduled for April 8. Finding a new agency chief was still in the makings, though.

Benny Gantz, the party’s leader, questioned Netanyahu’s statement.

The prime minister made the decision this morning to continue his campaign against the judicial system and to provoke a dangerous constitutional crisis in Israel. The High Court decision must precede the appointment of the Shin Bet’s head, Gantz wrote on X.

Rescuers race the clock as Myanmar earthquake death toll climbs past 1,700

More than 1,700 people died in Myanmar as a result of the devastating earthquake that occurred last week.

The military-led government of the nation announced a higher casualty count on Sunday and established a weeklong mourning period starting on Monday. The search and rescue effort was reportedly being slowed by a lack of resources, equipment, and damaged infrastructure.

At midday on Friday, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Myanmar, causing extensive damage, including in Naypitaw, the country’s capital. Shortly thereafter, a second, magnitude 6. 4 tremor occurred.

INTERACTIVE-MYANMAR-EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL-March 30-2025 – 12-30 GMT -1743338958 (Al Jazeera)

The earthquake’s epicenter was located 17 kilometers (11 miles) west of Mandalay, the second-largest city in the world, with a population of nearly 1.5 million.

At least 3,400 people have been injured and more than 300 have vanished in the Mandalay region, where tremors have damaged infrastructure like mosques, bridges, and the city’s airport, according to Maj. General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the government.

At least 18 people were killed at a construction site in Bangkok when a partially constructed high-rise collapsed as a result of the earthquake, which also erupted in neighboring Thailand.

Rescue effort was slowed

Rescuers have expressed concern that the search for survivors is failing and that the majority of survivors must be rescued within three days of a catastrophe if they want to survive.

Myanmar’s neighbors, including India, China, Malaysia, and Singapore, have sent warships and planes to deliver relief supplies.

Wai Phyo, a rescuer in Myanmar, claimed that Mandalay’s recovery teams were doing their best, but were overwhelmed by the destruction’s size and the lack of “proper equipment.”

Although the official figure for the region’s population is probably many times higher than the official figure, little is known about the damage that many places have experienced due to telecommunication outages.

The International Rescue Committee’s deputy director of programs in Myanmar, Lauren Ellery, told the AP news agency, “We’re really not clear on the scale of the destruction at this point.”

According to Ellery, the earthquake’s state of emergency and ongoing landslides hampered operations in six regions.

Because telecommunications are slow, she said, “They were talking about a town near Mandalay where 80% of the buildings were reported to have collapsed.”

French court bars far-right leader Le Pen from public office

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen was sentenced to prison and barred from running for office after being found guilty of defrauding the European Union.

Le Pen used more than 3 million euros ($3.3 million) to pay her National Rally party members, according to the Paris court ruling.

The chief judge’s ruling in sentencing stipulated that the nationalist politician would be barred from running for office for five years as of the moment. Additionally, a four-year prison term was set for the RN, who was also fined $2.16 million.

The court considered whether a person who had already been found guilty of a crime or not, as well as the possibility of reoffending, when a candidate ran for president, according to presiding judge Benedicte de Perthuis.

According to opinion polls, the ruling threatens to force Le Pen to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race, where she is currently the frontrunner.

Prosecutors had accused the nationalist leader of seeking her “political death.” She is expected to challenge the decision, which could lead to a contentious legal argument.

Before the sentencing was over, she strode out of the court and fled.

a striking far-right face?

The French far right’s prospects and landscape would change if Marine Le Pen were to lose, according to Natacha Butler of Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler in Paris courtroom. Jordan Bardella, the current RN president, is most likely to succeed her.

She continued, “But he is much younger and not the same kind of dominant force as Marine Le Pen.” Some claim that he would likely find the 2027 race more difficult because he is not the figure that so many people in France are familiar with.

Some claim that “a fresh face may be what’s needed.”

Jordan Bardella, the leader of the Rassemblement National (RN) political party, is the party’s president. (File: AFP)

Additionally, 12 parliamentary assistants, eight other RN members who were formerly elected as members of the European Parliament when the funds were defunded, and eight others who received wrongful verdicts were sentenced to a number of years in prison.

Nationalists quickly reacted in support of the RN leader.

According to Bardella, the “unjust” verdict had “executed” French democracy.

Eric Zemmour, Le Pen’s radical right rival, criticized the sentence and argued that the RN leader had the right to speak up to the electorate.

Despite Moscow’s frequently urging other nations to not interfere with their own internal affairs, the Kremlin also criticized the decision.

According to spokesman Dmitry Peskov, “more and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms.”

Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, who portrays himself as a leader of “patriotic” EU states, expressed support for Le Pen by writing:  Je suis Marine! on X .

‘This is our home’: D-day for Afghans facing Pakistan deportation

Islamabad, Pakistan: Mohammad Laal Khan only has a known home there. He was born here. He got married here. Here, his children were born. He buried his eldest brother here.

However, a late-night police raid in November of last year shattered his sense of belonging.

After his parents fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Khan was born in a tribal district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan. Since the 1990s, the family — including Khan’s mother, four brothers, their families, and other relatives — has lived in the suburbs of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad in mud-plastered houses without electricity or other basic utilities.

He is currently being deported to Pakistan.

On a recent March afternoon, Khan, 36, claimed that he had threatened to kill all the men in the same room where dozens of police officers had stormed in and that being an Afghan was a curse upon our existence.

Khan says, despite much pleading, four of his brothers were taken away and charged with living in the country “illegally”. After two weeks, a court imposed bail on them, which they ultimately oversaw.

Afghan Citizenship Cards (ACC), an approved form of identification issued to Afghan citizens living in Pakistan, are the property of the entire family. But over the past two years, between September 2023 and February 2025, a systemic government crackdown on Afghan nationals has resulted in the expulsion of nearly 850, 000 Afghans from Pakistan, including women and children.

After spending almost their entire lives in Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of Afghans who belong to the ACC are now facing expulsion on April 1.

“We are completely ignorant of Afghanistan.” We have lived here all our lives, made friends here, built our businesses here. We will leave if the government wants to throw us out, but we’ll do it once more, Khan said.

“This is our home,” the statement read.

Pakistan’s deportation plan

According to estimates from the government, Pakistan currently has more than 2.5 million Afghans.

About 1.3 million of them hold an ACC, which was first issued in 2006 and was first issued by the UNHCR, while 800, 000 others hold one, which was issued in 2017.

These documents were previously recognised as proof of legitimate residence in Pakistan.

No longer at all.

A three-phase “relocation” plan was laid out in a two-page document released in January by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office.

The first phase targets the deportation of all Afghans now viewed as undocumented — including ACC holders. The second phase focuses on PoR cardholders, who have been granted temporary stay until June 2025. Afghan nationals who are awaiting relocation to third countries will be addressed in the final phase.

Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said the government was firm in its stance, despite pleas from the UNHCR and global rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International.

“Our hospitality and generosity have been shown to Afghans in the country for four decades, but it cannot continue indefinitely.” He told Al Jazeera, “They will have to return.”

With the start of this new wave of deportations slated for around Eid — Pakistan celebrates the otherwise festive occasion on March 31 — the deadline has prompted criticism. Many view it as an attempt to unfairly demonize Afghan citizens by relating their involvement in criminal activity.

Islamabad claims that Afghanistan is the site of a number of deadly attacks by armed groups in recent years. This has also led to a spike in tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

In a statement released on March 19, HRW’s Asia director Elaine Pearson said, “Pakistani officials should stop coercing Afghans to return home and give those facing expulsion the opportunity to seek protection.”

Amnesty International urged Pakistan to reconsider its decision, calling the deadline “unyielding and cruel”.

“These opaque executive orders contravene the government’s own promises and repeated calls by human rights organizations to uphold the rights of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers”, said Isabelle Lassee, deputy regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International, in a March 26 statement.

However, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has insisted that the government had “fulfilled its obligations” by welcoming Afghans and was not required to consult with the UNHCR in response to Chaudhry’s sentiments.

However, the UNHCR’s spokesperson, Qaiser Afridi, expressed concern that some of the ACC holders might require international protection.

“We are urging the government to see their situation through a humanitarian lens. Additionally, Afridi told Al Jazeera, “We call for engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan to ensure their return can be honorable and voluntary.”

That alone, according to Afridi, would make “reintegration in Afghanistan sustainable.”

Mohammad Laal Khan and his family members live in an informal settlement in the suburbs of Islamabad, where they do not have any amenities]Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]

Why are we being pushed away, you ask?

Khan’s family moved to Islamabad in the early 1990s and has resided there ever since.

Khan’s room has rough, mud-plastered walls enclosing a modest space with folded mattresses, a simple rug, and a few personal belongings.

Guldana Bibi, 71, Khan’s mother, had a wrinkled face, deep-set hazel eyes, and a scarf covering her head. She was quietly seated in the room.

“For the past four decades, I have resided here.” My children, my grandchildren, were all born here. My last connection to Afghanistan was with my husband, who passed away years ago. Why are we being “pushed away”? she said.

In response to the government’s crackdowns on Afghans, Khan and his brothers co-founded a wood shuttering company. However, twice in the past ten years, in 2015 and 2023, they were forced to stop working and sell what they had in their stores. Khan claims that he lost close to 1.8 million rupees ($6, 400) due to currency fluctuations.

“People ask why we haven’t done better economically. How can you live if your life is constantly rearranged or you are made to pay bribes to live? Khan said while his arms were folded, standing cross-legged.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan are neighbours. That will never change. However, neither hating one person nor returning people will work.

‘ This cafe is my life ‘

Benazir Raofi sat roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from customers in a dimly lit, colorfully decorated cafe. She has 35 years of residence in Pakistan.

Benazir Raofi
Benazir Raofi was only 12 years old when she moved to Pakistan with her uncle after separating from her parents]Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]

Raofi’s family left the country when the Soviet withdrawal caused a civil war to break out in her country because her father was a member of the Afghan government. She was prevented while her parents and seven siblings were able to travel to India. She was forced to stay back in Afghanistan.

I was only twelve years old. Before we eventually moved to Pakistan in December 1990, my uncle took care of me, Raofi told Al Jazeera.

Raofi says it is the Pakistani people who give her hope. She worked as a local travel agent and for international NGOs before becoming ACC in 2017.

Before the Taliban took control of Kabul, she received a grant for a project for her idea to build an Afghan Women Solidarity Cafe and Restaurant in the summer of that year.

The walls of the vibrant, but cluttered cafe are adorned with framed certificates, small decorative objects, and artificial vines with flowers. A large image of the historic, three-story palace Darul Aman can be seen on one of the walls.

Afghanis are recalled to the cafe by Raofi, who smiled and said, “When they come in, it reminds them of home.” “I just wanted to provide a space for families, but after the fall of Kabul, my café became a sanctuary for so many Afghans. She continued, “It allowed me to contribute to the community and allow me to earn an honest living.”

She now worries about what the government might do to ACC members like her, though.

Raofi's Cafe
Benazir Raofi started her cafe after winning a grant in 2021]Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]

She said, “I am a single woman, and I am who I am because regular, regular Pakistanis have supported, protected, and nurtured me,” while sipping her kahva, a hot drink made with cardamom and green tea leaves.

Raofi, who still runs the cafe, claims that despite facing health-related setbacks and even theft two years ago, she never felt bothered or concerned about the government’s deportation plan.

Until this year.

“I’ve been told by the police that I can’t work here and that I should leave the city after they have visited my cafe twice since January. Why should I, then? This city is my home for the last 30 years. She said, “This cafe is my life.”

Raofi acknowledges that she has no backup plan in case the deportation deadline approaches.