Meet the Female Afghan Governor Who Led a Taliban Resistance and Is Now Feared Captured

As one of only three female district governors in Afghanistan, Salima Mazari is used to attracting the attention of the Taliban.

The militant group, kept at bay by a U.S.-led coalition for 20 years, now controls the country after sweeping across its major cities as the U.S. withdraws.

The 40-year-old Mazari may be in danger, with reports indicating that she has been captured after the Taliban seized her district of Charkint.

As The Guardian detailed earlier this summer, she has been a leading figure both in the political resistance to the insurgents and as a military commander.

"Sometimes I'm in the office in Charkint, and other times I have to pick up a gun and join the battle," she told the outlet.

Mazari's whereabouts are currently unclear, though she had in recent weeks spoken to several international outlets, criticizing the Taliban and conveying a message of resolve.

"Taliban are exactly the ones who trample human rights," she told the AFP, which reported she had been working to prepare several hundred locals to fight as a kind of militia along with her security forces.

She spoke confidently of Charkint's ability to hold off the Taliban in the recent interview with The Guardian, saying: "We've faced Taliban attacks longer than the recent surge in violence and we've managed to keep them out of Charkint."

According to The Guardian, Mazari has, during the course of her leadership role, survived both mines planted to target her and multiple ambushes by the Taliban.

She had remained hopeful and undeterred, telling the outlet: "If we don't fight now against the extremist ideologies and the groups that force them on us, we will lose our chance to defeat them. They will succeed. They will brainwash society into accepting their agenda ... But I am not afraid. I believe in the rule of law in Afghanistan."

The militant group's fighters swept through the country this month, taking city after city as American troops began to move out. Over the weekend, the country's capital, Kabul, fell with little resistance from the government or national army.

The Taliban now insists its rule — which has still been challenged by pockets of protests — will not repeat the brutality of its reign pre-9/11, when girls were not allowed to attend school and women could be beaten if they did not wear face coverings and full-length burqas.

In an interview published Saturday with the Associated Press, Mazari expressed no confidence that the Taliban would keep its promises to be more moderate.

"There will be no place for women," she told the AP. "In the provinces controlled by the Taliban, no women exist there anymore, not even in the cities. They are all imprisoned in their homes."