Anahita Saymidinova

“But again, we were waiting there. Everything was about waiting. It wasn’t so quick as you think, because one Taliban representative is saying something, and the other is coming, checking, and a lot of unpredictability. You can’t predict what will happen next. And then we went, and we were waiting for them at the border. And then the car came and I saw this girls, but they were in burka. They have this not traditional, but they cover everything and even their eyes, you don’t see them.”

My name is Anahita Saymidinova. I am an international relations specialist for Central Asia, Iran, China, and the former Soviet Union countries. I was involved in humanitarian assistance efforts with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tajikistan. Later, I helped build Tajik-British relations at the British embassy in Dushanbe. I studied urban planning and public policy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs in the U.S. Today, I am a freelance journalist and mostly work with two Persian channels based in London – Iran International and Afghanistan International.