Afghan popstar who used her fame to call for women’s rights recounts harrowing escape from Kabul

Aryana Sayeed has divided her time between Turkey, Britain and Afghanistan and had been in Kabul in recent months to start a clothing business. She said she received a call on August 14 warning her that the Taliban were closing in on the capital. When the Taliban last held power from 1996 to 2001, they brutally enforced an interpretation of Sunni Islam that banned women from work and school.