"I get regular death threats from Taliban and ISIL. I expect myself to be assassinated, but these threats cannot stop me," said Zarifa Ghafari, Afghanistan's youngest female mayor, in an exclusive interview with CGTN Digital.

Ghafari was just 26 when she was appointed as the first female mayor of Maidan Shahr in July 2018, Afghanistan's Wardak province, 80 kilometers southwest of the capital Kabul. But it took her nine months to officially take over the position.

"Wardak's governor Haji Ghulam refused to accept me as the mayor because I am a woman. He said, 'She's a young girl. This is not her place.' I was mobbed by a group of men with sticks and stones outside the governor's office. They told me to never come back," said Ghafari who was then barred from taking office on the grounds of committing forgery. But Ghafari believes she was targeted because of her gender. "It was the saddest day of my life."

"After that incident I felt that I have to show them what I can do. I felt that they are uneducated people and they don't know the power of women's education and rights," she told CGTN Digital, adding "They made me sit at home for nine months, but I fought and won."

The forgery allegation was never proven, and she took over as mayor in April, but only after governor Haji Ghulam had exited office.   

She won the first battle. But this was just the beginning of her struggle. Being the only woman in town to hold a "males-only" profile, she says her subordinates tried every trick in the book to make her life difficult. "All male members in my office staged a walk out against my appointment," Ghafari said while recalling her first day at work.

"They would come late for meetings, make excuses and even ignore me. Later I told them that if I am a woman, it's my personal matter, but I am the head of this office. They should cheer about the fact that a woman has been appointed as a mayor; they should think about it positively."

Ghafari says she never planned on becoming a mayor. She was pursuing her masters in economics in India when, during a visit home last year, her friends suggested that she sit for a competitive civil service exam. "I never wanted to be a government servant. I was busy with my education, my work in the field of women's rights, my NGO, and my radio station for women."

She passed the exam and was appointed based on an official decree from Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani.

Under the Afghan Constitution, adopted in 2004, men and women have equal legal rights and duties. Many women have risen to high offices in Afghanistan after U.S. troops removed the Taliban from power after the 2001 invasion. However, a lot of provinces, including Wadrak, remain largely conservative where the Taliban still enjoys significant support.

In 2017, Afghanistan's first female governor Masooma Muradi was forced to quit her job after facing opposition because of her gender. She was replaced by a man.

Afghanistan is ranked the "worst place in the world to be a woman" with a female literacy rate of only 17 percent. According to The New York Times, just 13 girls graduated from the only high school for girls in Maidan Shahr last year.

"Initially during outdoor inspections, it was tough to make people listen and talk to me but now I know how to make them talk. Now, they share their problems with me," said Ghafari, who has launched a "Clean City, Green City" campaign against plastic trash despite threats from insurgent groups and land mafia.

"I don't even have a bodyguard. According to the rules, I should have two. I just have a car and a driver. It's not safe here, so I live in Kabul and travel 80 kilometers every day between home and office. The highway is also not safe. Anything can happen."

Ghafari told CGTN Digital that she shares the fears of many Afghan women over the possibility of the Taliban's return to power after the U.S. withdraws its troops. "I am also very scared, because what I am doing is very meaningful. I don't want to stop doing this just because a group of people feels women should not do it. I really want to work for my people till the end of my life," she said.

(Cover image designed by CGTN's Du Chenxin. /Image courtesy of @Zarifa_Ghafari via Twitter)