Zarifa Ghafari says it became clear she could no longer trust her driver when Taliban militants tried to blow up her car with a rocket-propelled grenade.
I forget the loud dining room, a forkful of curry suspended in mid-air. She had already had her doubts, my guest explains. A year earlier, in March 2020, a hit squad had targeted her after the driver, Masoom, had parked the car and left to run an errand. After that she had hired an armoured vehicle and five bodyguards for her 45km commute from Kabul to the town where she worked as mayor. On the day of the RPG attack, one of the bodyguards was driving her and her fiancé, while Masoom was transporting the rest of the team; despite her order that he should stay behind as back-up, he had overtaken her vehicle.
