Afghan Christian convert and ex-government official Ziba Mastoor escaped to Qatar this month after Taliban intelligence agents tracked her from Afghanistan into Pakistan. She now holds only a short-term visa and worries that expulsion would endanger her life.

Her situation highlights the dangers for Afghan women and religious minorities who sought safety in nearby nations following the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Pakistan and Iran have stepped up removals of Afghans in recent months, prompting fears that refugees could be sent back to face persecution.

Since reclaiming authority, the Taliban has pushed women out of most public roles. Secondary schools and universities remain closed to girls, and women encounter broad limits on jobs, movement, and public access. Female protesters often report sudden arrests and jail time.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation along with leading Islamic scholars have dismissed the Taliban limits on women as unsupported by Islamic law. Advocates charge that the group applies a strict reading of Islam to maintain power and target religious minorities.

Accounts of threats, unjust detentions, violence, and bias have driven minority members to leave or hide their identities.

Mastoor held a high post under former President Ashraf Ghani. She explained that Taliban agents pursued her over her faith and tried to detain her in a night raid on her home, though she got away.

She claimed authorities later handed down a penalty of stoning for her conversion to Christianity and that officials also pressured her parents while hunting for her. The report could not confirm the sentence independently.

When asked, Mastoor stated that she embraced Christianity in 2019 as a sincere personal decision guided by her beliefs. Her ethnic Tajik Muslim parents disagreed with the choice.

Ongoing pressure from Taliban agents pushed her to cross into Pakistan, yet she found no permanent security there and lived alone under threat of forced return.

A contact in Kabul later alerted her that agents were searching for her in Pakistan, leading to her latest flight.

She reached Qatar days ago on a temporary visitor visa. Mastoor fears deportation to Afghanistan once the visa ends, which she believes would put her life at serious risk.

Afghanistan's Christian community is thought to be tiny and hard to track because believers worship in secret. Mastoor guessed only a few hundred remain.

She has sought help from Christian groups around the world to avoid return to Afghanistan.

Political analyst Fazal Ur Rehman Zadran noted that measuring the Christian population is tough because open practice or promotion of the faith is banned.

Zadran added that dozens of Hazara Shiite families converted in past years. Hazaras have endured long persecution, including attacks by the Islamic State, which may have spurred some shifts in belief.

After the Taliban regained power, many Christian families hid their faith. Some fled to Pakistan and Iran in disguise, he said.

Tougher deportation rules in both nations have left those families in hardship and uncertainty, afraid of sudden return, he noted.

UNHCR spokesperson Qaiser Khan Afridi voiced concern over Pakistan's deportation policy. He praised Pakistan for hosting millions of Afghan refugees for over 45 years despite its own challenges, yet stressed that refugees should not face forced return to danger.

The UNHCR worries most about risks to women, girls, and other vulnerable people sent back to Afghanistan and called for any returns to be voluntary, safe, and dignified.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told The Media Line there is no Christian community in Afghanistan. As a result, he said, Christians hold no official standing and no churches exist for worship. He did not respond to claims about Mastoor's arrest attempt or sentence.

'The international response to Afghanistan's crisis has been marked by half-measures'

Human rights activist Rebecca Trotter, co-founder of Food for Thought Afghanistan, said the global response has featured partial steps, symbolic acts, and words instead of real action. Even sanctions from the Taliban's first rule have mostly stayed off, she argued, showing a gap between stated support for rights and the group's resolve to push its own path.

Trotter believes the world would have normalized ties with the de facto authorities already without steady resistance from Afghan civil society inside and outside the country. Real backing for those efforts could change Afghanistan's course, she said.

Her group is helping relocate 60 at-risk women's rights activists from Pakistan to safe third countries. It resettled 31 families last year, with others still in safe houses it runs. The organization has also urged Pakistan to honor the women's protection claims under international, local, and Islamic law.

Hadia Sahibzada, founder of the Afghanistan Women's Voice Movement, called women's rights in Afghanistan one of the world's worst human rights crises. She labeled Taliban policies gender apartheid and a clear breach of basic rights. Forced returns expose women to immediate persecution, detention, revenge, and harsh punishment, she warned.

Gender apartheid and a blatant violation of fundamental human rights

Repeated UN and government condemnations have not stopped the abuses, Sahibzada said, and lack of accountability has allowed violations to persist. She called for those responsible to face prosecution under international law and urged governments to avoid normalizing relations with the Taliban. Instead, she pressed for stronger diplomatic action, accountability steps, protection for Afghan women, and reopening schools and universities to girls.

For Mastoor the issues are immediate. Her future hinges on gaining protection in Qatar or elsewhere before her visa runs out. Without a safe place, she fears the path out of Afghanistan through Pakistan could lead back under Taliban control.