Early in their trial, four of the Shelter Now aid workers were startled by the Afghan legal system.
The chief justice began by asking us if we had a lawyer. We were all aghast.
"They didn't even tell us there was going to be a trial, and now they want to know if we have a lawyer?" I whispered to Heather.
"How are we supposed to get a lawyer when we barely have contact with anyone on the outside?" Diana fired off.
Georg complained to the same effect. "We were never allowed to talk with anybody from the outside about anything, just about how we are doing and what our health is."
"Now you are informed," replied the unflappable chief justice.
Surprise Visitor
On November 15, someone pounded loudly on the prison door. Mercer and Curry thought their Taliban captors were coming to kill them.
A scruffy, beardless man in ragtag clothing burst through the entrance. Rounds of ammunition were wrapped around his chest. In one hand he carried a rifle; in the other, what looked like a rocket launcher. His eyes were wide open; his hair was wild and coated in dust. He was panting and looked astonished to see us, a group of foreigners, there in the room at the Ghazni prison.
"Hello," he blurted out in English. That was the only English word he knew. Farsi came next.
"Aaazaad! Aaazaad!" You're free! You're free! "Taliban raft." The Taliban have left.
Superstars
Shortly after their release, the women prepared to leave the Kabul area with
the help of an Afghan businessman named Qasim.
Qasim brought a van around to the front of the building and we got in. There were curtains on the windows. "Close the curtains," Qasim insisted. "We do not want anyone to see you."
The curtains did us no good. A mob of more than a hundred people surrounded the van as we prepared to drive away. People beat on the hood and banged at the windows. We felt like rock stars making a getaway after a concert.
Double JeopardyFormer Taliban hostages Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer talk about the risks they took, the imprisonment they suffered, and their hopes to return to "the hardest place on Earth."
CNN's People in the News section on includes a profile of Dayna and Heather in addition to a timeline of their captivity.
Previous Christianity Today coverage of Dayna and Heather's imprisonment includes:
The Agony of the FamiliesAs aid workers in Afghanistan went from defendants under draconian law to hostages in a war, their loved ones at home also underwent a trial.
Entrapment SuspectedShelter Now leader believes workers were pawns in Taliban scheme. (January 18, 2002)
Each had unique translation philosophies, diction preferences, and intended audiences in mind, frameworks that informed how they approached their all-consuming work.
Music experts say we don't need more "manly songs," but we do need to help lower voices find their place
The theologian set aside his nearly finished magnum opus while in prison, investing instead in creative writing.
Christian aid organization says it is not and defends former director sentenced to prison in Israel.
Each had unique translation philosophies, diction preferences, and intended audiences in mind, frameworks that informed how they approached their all-consuming work.简体中文繁體中文
