Online petition seeking asylum for Afghan women gets 3L signatures

‘Made plea in memory of cousin who was killed by Taliban’

Adeeba Qayoumi, a 21-year-old woman who fled to India from Herat, Afghanistan, in 2019, has started an online petition in memory of her 29-year-old cousin Farishta — a civil rights activist killed by the Taliban last year. As of Friday evening, the online petition, which urges the Central government to grant asylum to women and children who are fleeing Afghanistan, had received over three lakh signatures. Speaking to The Hindu about her cousin, who she lost to the Taliban, Ms. Qayoumi said: “She [Farishta] was a civil rights activist and always raised her voice for the rights of women and children. Even while many of us left, she continued to stay in Afghanistan and kept raising her voice. That is why the Taliban shot her. Even her brother got shot while he was trying to save her.”