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image source, Charlotte Bellis/Instagram
New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis turned to the Taliban for help.
New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis reported that she was not allowed to return to her home country to give birth.
And he wrote that, paradoxically, he turned to the Taliban for help.
The story of the reporter, who is in Afghanistan waiting for her case to be resolved, highlights the harsh border measures taken by New Zealand to keep the coronavirus away.
The case has sparked controversy in that country, where there are those who disagree with the journalist’s privileged relationship with the Taliban.
They have been consistently criticized for brutally cracking down on women’s rights by arresting, torturing and even killing activists.
On Tuesday, following public attention to the case, the New Zealand government said it Bellis has been offered a quarantine place and are organizing travel plans.
“There is a vacancy in controlled isolation and quarantine for Bellis and I urge you to take it,” said Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson at a news conference on covid.
Robertson denied that the decision came as a result of the focus on the case, noting that the staff deals with emergency requests on a daily basis.
“They’re always trying to contact people and trying to make it work.”
What did Charlotte Bellis ask of the Taliban?
In a column written for the newspaper New Zealand HeraldBellis said the New Zealand government last week turned down her request to return and give birth at home.
Nowadays, the country allows the entry of citizens and permanent residents, but only if they spend 10 days in isolation in hotels suitable for quarantine.
With such facilities in high demand and places limited, many New Zealanders who wish to return have found themselves excluded from their country.
Bellis compared that experience to how she was treated by the Taliban, whom she contacted to ask if she can be in Afghanistan as a pregnant woman and not married.
Bellis and her partner, a Belgian photojournalist, are in Kabul, the Afghan capital, where they went to cover the withdrawal of US troops.
“You can be and you won’t have a problem. Just tell people you’re married and if it escalates, call us,” Bellis quoted unnamed officials who responded to his request.
“When it is the Taliban who offer you a safe haven, as a pregnant and unmarried woman, you know that your situation is unhinged,” she wrote.
Single Afghan mothers have reported being frequently harassed by Taliban officials, pressuring them to hand over their children and threatening their custody rights.
What has been the response to your column?
Since Bellis’s letter was published, there have been calls for New Zealand authorities to adjust emergency quarantine allocation criteria to cater specifically for pregnant women.
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins defended the policies, saying the system “worked exceptionally well for New Zealand, saving lives and hospital admissions and preventing the health system from being swamped.”
Bellis said he had also been offered asylum in another unnamed country since going public with his fight.
But his story has also been criticized by observers, human rights activists and Afghans themselves.
“The story is just a continuation of how the Taliban treat non-Afghans differently… than Afghans,” tweeted Austrian-Afghan journalist Emran Feroz.
“Journalists who were seen as Afghan often faced threats, beatings, torture and murder, while non-Afghans…had tons of privileges and were welcomed and treated delicately by all sides,” he added.
More recently, there have been calls for the Taliban to release several women’s rights activists, who they arrested following raiding their homes.
