Some are Not Equal in Life
This piece was written by Rahil (pseudonym) who lives in Afghanistan in Persian and has been translated to English by us. You can find the Persian version here.
In the hot nights of the summer, there are people who sleep as soon as the sun sets and wake up at the same time every morning, but they still complain about being sleep deprived because the nights are so short. At the same time, however:
There are girls who – after the rise of power of the Taliban – unwillingly wake up for hours in the middle of the night, stressed and anxious about everything that has happened the day before.
Yes.
I know a girl who, while at the height of hopelessness regarding recovery from her health ailments, finished school with much difficulty, and passed the entrance exam to a public university.
A girl blind in both eyes, born with the limitation of not being able to see in one of the provinces of Afghanistan. She refused to accept her blindness as a reason to give up in life, and she finished school for the blind successfully in Kabul and then started studying Law and Political Science at Kabul University. Despite financial difficulties, she worked day and night for four years to successfully finish university, and she succeeded. Although all students at the university had various challenges and problems that they had to overcome to pursue their education, these are incomparable to the difficulties faced by this girl. I witnessed how her old father supported her and her blind siblings, despite few financial possibilities being available to him. She, herself, had dreams of working after university and helping out her family financially. Little did she know that all that would become impossible as the Taliban rose to power.
In her whole household, only one of her brothers was healthy and able to make a living. Soon after the Taliban rose to power, he fell sick to late-stage cancer. After unsuccessful treatment, he eventually passed away. Now, this girl is left without any prospects of a future, pained by the death of her brother. She cannot sleep through the night, as the hurt and anxiety keep her awake as she cries into the night.
28 June 2022
Rahil
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