OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Ghargasta Katawazai helped lead the fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan and is now calling on the United States to reverse course.

“If anyone’s watching me in Afghanistan, men, women, or children I just want to tell them my heart is with you, my prayers are with you, be strong, we are trying our best as much as we can,” said Katawazai, who was the youngest member elected to Afghanistan’s congress and the first woman from her province.

“I have faced a lot of threats, and challenges at home,” she said. “It was not easy as a young girl in a conservative society going door-by-door and saying, ‘hey vote for me I will represent you.’”

Katawazai believes in the power of democracy, it has been her driving force.

“My mission was to just open a window and door for the girls standing behind me. For the girls in my family for the girls in my community, that you can do it,” she said, noting the progress was being made and women’s voices were being heard, but all of it was lost in an instant when the Taliban took over.

“The first thing that happened was the people were afraid to send their daughters to school and the school was shut down,” explained Katawazai.

She’s seen schools targeted before and always came back with a message.

“I would call those young people and say they’ve burned the building not your goal, just sit in the yard and learn it will be okay,” she said. “But now I can’t say that. I can’t guarantee anything.”

She’s pleading with the United States government to reverse its decision and stay the course in Afghanistan.

“I’ve been with them in the military base, when there was an attack on them, bombing on them. I was standing beside them supporting the mission and now it’s time they support us,” she said, noting now is not the time to give up.

“It’s not too late,” said Katawazai. “They can go back. Afghan soldiers are still there, they just need morale. They are brave.”

She’s speaking from her home in Omaha, where she feels fortunate to have the freedom to do so.

“We have the right to speak up, but in Afghanistan right now they don’t have the right to speak up. They will be killed, they will be beheaded.”

Katawazai and her young family fled to the United States in 2013 after her husband, Feroz Mohmand, exposed a plot to attack the U.S. military. At the time he was a press aid for former president Hamid Karzai.

“Now seeing everything get back in the hands of the people we were getting out from the hands of is like a slap in the face,” she said. “My life was sacrificed for my country and I will never regret that.”

Now grapping as dreams of democracy turn into scenes of chaos. “It’s like a nightmare,” said Katawazai. It’s unbelievable.”

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