Charlotte Bellis: Pregnant New Zealand journalist stranded in Afghanistan can return home

‘When the Taliban offers you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up,’ Charlotte Bellis writes

Charlotte Bellis, the pregnant journalist from New Zealand, who was stuck in Afghanistan due to strict quarantine rules back home, is set to return to the Pacific nation.

Deputy prime minister Grant Robertson said Ms Bellis had been offered a voucher for a room after the government had insisted that she needed to reapply for a spot in the country's completely occupied quarantine hotels.

"There is a place in MIQ [managed isolation and quarantine] for Miss Bellis, and I urge her to take it,” Mr Robertson said after she wrote in a column published in the New Zealand Herald last Saturday that New Zealand has refused to give her a place in its quarantine facility.

“I will be returning to my home country New Zealand at the beginning of March to give birth to our baby girl. We are so excited to return home and be surrounded by family and friends at such a special time,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Now 25 weeks pregnant, Ms Bellis said it was “brutally ironic” that she had once questioned the Taliban about their treatment of women and she was now asking the same questions of the New Zealand government.

She added that she had to seek the Taliban's help after her she failed to enter New Zealand via a lottery-style system and later was rejected when she applied for an emergency return.

During the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, she had asked the Islamist militants whether they would uphold women’s rights, which brought her international attention.

The reporter is still in Afghanistan with her partner, New York Times photographer Jim Huylebroek. Although they are unmarried, the Taliban assured her that she will be safe there.

“When the Taliban offers you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up," she wrote.

Ms Bellis resigned from Al Jazeera in November and had to leave Qatar because of the conservative laws which bar sex outside marriage. She then moved to Belgium with her partner but was unable to stay as she wasn’t a resident of the European nation.

“We wanted to keep time up our sleeves for an emergency, so decided to rebase. The problem was the only other place we had visas to live was Afghanistan,” she added.

Ms Bellis then called her contact in the Taliban and asked if she and her partner would be allowed in Afghanistan despite her being pregnant and unmarried. She was told: “Just tell people you’re married and if it escalates, call us. Don’t worry.”

Chris Bunny, the head of New Zealand’s quarantine system, said the new offer was made to her because Afghanistan was extremely dangerous and there was a risk of terrorism.

“We do acknowledge that Ms Bellis considers herself to be safe and did not seek an allocation on that ground. We have the residual discretion to grant allocations in rare and exceptional circumstances,” Mr Bunny was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Officials said they would add Mr Huylebroek to her voucher if he took the same flight with her.