Afghan Female Director Shahrbanoo Sadat On Escape: I'm Lucky

Shahrbanoo Sadat (Sumber: Antara)

JAKARTA - Hours before the Taliban took over Kabul, female director Shahrbanoo Sadat was offered to leave Afghanistan. He refused because he did not want to leave his family. The next day, Shahrbanoo Sadat went to the bank.

"(Suddenly) we saw a Taliban car with a white flag... and... we ran", Sadat told Reuters. "And to me it was like a scene in a movie that couldn't have been real because I was in the middle of Kabul".

Accompanied by nine family members, Sadat then left for Kabul airport. They arrived in Paris earlier this week.

"I was lucky but this situation didn't happen for a lot of people", she said, referring to people trapped at the airport. "They don't speak English, they are not directors, they have no international friends and their lives are in danger".

It took Sadat 72 hours to leave the apartment and meet French troops at Kabul airport, where she spent the night in the camp before flying to Abu Dhabi. She described the chaotic atmosphere when queuing outside the airport.

"(The Taliban) wanted (people to queue) but it was impossible because people were pushing from here and there and the Taliban were walking around carrying cables, guns and even RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)", she said.

"Children cry and parents pass out... from the heat".

Unable to stand the heat and the slow pace of the queue, she almost gave up, but her sister continued to cheer him on. Sadat said she saw men, including her father, separated from the group.

Sadat tried to block it. She said Taliban members were aggressive towards men, but did not touch women.

"They let us go".

Kabul airport is packed with Afghans seeking to be evacuated following the takeover of power by the Taliban.

The Taliban have been trying to reassure people at Kabul airport that they have nothing to fear and should go home.

Sadat, who was born in Iran and moved to Afghanistan in December 2021, was working on a romantic comedy before running away.

"I have mixed feelings. I don't understand this. Everything happened so fast", said Sadat, who usually makes films with ordinary life themes.

"I want to keep making films but maybe my point of view has changed", she said, admitting she could no longer ignore politics because she was so hurt by it.