The Eighth of March is one of the most important days all around the world. It is because of this day that all women can have their rights in society. In every country except Afghanistan, women have their rights. Women’s freedoms have been a matter of deadly contention in Afghanistan for more than half a century, but never before have more lives depended on the outcome of this struggle. Girls and women started losing freedoms from the first day the Taliban took over in August 2021. Women don’t have access to education, work, they are not allowed to go outside alone, celebrate special events, travel without an intimate, or even choose when and with whom to get married. Because of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan face many challenges and don’t have their rights.
I’m one of those Afghanistani girls who lives in Afghanistan during this difficult situation and faces many challenges. Before the Taliban, I had lots of goals and dreams. I have the best memories from my school and courses. I was the best student in our school. All my teachers encouraged me and told others to learn from me and try to be like me. From grade six up to ten I had the first position in my class and I tried as much as I could to be the best student in our school. I had the first position in my English course and I was the top student. Everything was great and my goal was to finish my school with full marks, pass the Conkor exam successfully and get the first position in Conkor where I could participate in TV programs and talk about my success. Hopefully then I could get a scholarship to go abroad and continue my education at Oxford university. I wanted to be that girl that my teachers and family wanted but the Taliban came and destroyed everything. I could not continue my education. I studied up to grade ten and then all the educational centers closed. I cried a lot because of my goals and dreams that I could not achieve. After that, I was faced with a different world filled with challenges of all kinds.
The first challenge that all people living in Afghanistan have these days is economic problems. People are living in poverty, most of them are jobless and can’t provide for their families. As we all know in Afghanistan all schools and universities are closed, but in our province one or two courses are being held but we can’t go because they are private classes and too expensive. For example, last month I went to one of those courses and at first I was happy. I studied there for one month but I had to leave my course because my parents could not afford it. It was very hard for me, I cried a lot and felt stressed. After three months, my parents borrowed some money because they wanted me to go back to the course and because when I left my course before, I had heart problems. My family worried about me and my sickness so they borrowed money. When I went back to the course, I was happy about my lessons but I stressed about my family borrowing money.
One day, I was standing with my brother in our yard and suddenly the Taliban saw us and came and started hitting my brother. I was so scared I didn’t know what I should do. I wanted to say that he is my brother, but they didn’t listen and they started hitting me too. When our teachers heard my sound they came in order to help us, but the Taliban hit them then closed our course. All the girls started crying. The Taliban imprisoned my brother and I for one week, it was terrible and we couldn’t talk with our families outside.
After that terrible event, I opened a shop to sew clothes. One day two people from a foreign country came into my shop and they wanted to look at my products. We talked with each other for a while and we were taking selfies when suddenly the Taliban came and broke our phones and also the windows. They were angry and said a lot of bad things and closed my shop. I cried because I wanted to forget those things that happened about my education. I went into a room alone and just cried for two or three days. I didn’t eat anything because I didn’t have hope. Every way that I chose the Taliban destroyed it. These days I’m very calm. I don’t want to talk with anyone. I don’t want to leave my bedroom and I don’t have any goals or dreams. I’m grateful that I am alive because of my family.
To conclude, women in Afghanistan have lots of challenges. They don’t have any right to do anything. They should have their own rights and rules in society to take part and help the improvement of the country. They should have the same rights and abilities as men. Women in Afghanistan don’t have the freedom to live like they want. They are forced to tolerate this horrible situation.
– ‘Samira’
Letter received from our students participating in our Mentorship program. Name and text altered for protection of our students and for grammatical changes.
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