By Quiara Shields
The Scene staff
Many people wouldn’t be able to survive a Taliban kidnapping and feel comfortable talking about it in a college presentation.
But that’s exactly what ZamZama Safi did on the Forest Park campus last month.
“I want to use my story to inspire people to never give up, have strong determination and persevere,” she said in an interview after the talk.
Safi, 25, who goes by “Z.Z.,” is a general studies student at St. Louis Community College. She eventually wants to earn a master’s degree in journalism.
On Sept. 14, Safi gave a presentation called “Never Give Up” in the Forest Park cafeteria. She described her former life, growing up in Afghanistan, an Islamic country where girls and woman are strictly limited in their opportunities.
“Girls weren’t supposed to go to school because it wasn’t prideful, and it was shameful to our community,” she said.
Safi said she started attending school at age 4, despite general disapproval among friends and neighbors. Her rights were protected because NATO forces, including the U.S. military, had a presence in her city.
Safi’s family was somewhat isolated because her parents were considered abnormal for wanting her and her sisters to be educated.
“My father was the biggest advocate for my education,” she said. “And he understood how important it was to be an educated woman.”
The Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic and jihadist movement. Safi said its militants kidnapped her at age 15 when she was walking home from school with her brother.
Safi was supposed to enter into an arranged marriage with a Taliban commander, but she escaped by persuading him to let her go home and tell her family about the wedding.
“I had to swear on the Quaran that I would come back to marry him, but my swear was not genuine,” she said.
Safi later worked as a NATO translator off and on from 2012 to 2020. In some cases, she had to travel to remote areas with harsh conditions.
During this time, Safi also earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Karwan University in Kabul.
After NATO left Afghanistan in September 2021, Safi’s case caught the attention of U.S. representatives with a special immigrant visa program in Afghanistan.
Safi said they helped her emigrate to St. Louis, where she now lives with a host family. Her biological parents are still in Afghanistan.
“Though I was very sad to leave my family, I couldn’t trust any of the people in Afghanistan,” she said. “I was always scared that someone could be a spy or turn me in.”
During Safi’s presentation at Forest Park, she asked fellow students to help with her family’s situation by sending emails to the U.S. State Department and pleading with officials to bring them to this country.
“I want people like the women in America who have the privilege and opportunity to receive an education to use that education to help people who are less fortunate,” she said.
Today, Safi doesn’t identify as a Muslim. She describes her religion as “love” and urges people to love and respect one another.
Safi is taking English and writing classes at STLCC. She plans to use her journalism to help further her activism.
“(Taliban militants are) fighting with guns,” she said. “I’m fighting with a pen.”