A surgeon who helps burned Afghan women is now in hiding, afraid for her life
The doctor specializes in treating women attacked by a spouse or who self-immolate in desperation. Now she faces threats from Taliban commanders and the husbands of those she's helped.
At 32 years old, Dr. K is old enough to remember the first time the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1995.
She was 7 when girls were banned from school. "For years, my mother ensured that we continued our studies in secret classes conducted by women teachers in their homes," she says.
Inspired by her mother, who worked as a gynecologist, she enrolled to study medicine after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. By 2016, she had become a surgical resident at the country's only burn center, in the western province of Herat.
In her five years of practice, Dr. K has treated hundreds of women whose husbands set them on fire or thrown acid on them – as well as women suffering
