Flies buzzed in their ears. The sisters were crying, the mother hurriedly took out the family's spare burqa, and the brother was anxious to hide or flee to another country.
Mom and sisters said, "They'll go in the door and check who's in the house, shoot civilians, day and night." That's how your grandfather was killed 20 years ago. ”
Dad and brothers complained that they might have to wear traditional Afghan clothing and grow long hair and beards.
The day was August 15, 2021, when the Taliban invaded the capital Kabul.
I can't remember the last time the whole family was so scared and helpless.
I'm Alicia Hamida, 17 years old, born and raised in Afghanistan and now live in the capital Kabul.
A month before the Taliban arrived in the capital, news said they had taken control of all the country's cities. I wonder every day, when will they arrive in the capital? If they come, will there be a war?
A few hours before the Taliban actually occupied the capital, one of my sisters was still working in the shop as usual. Suddenly someone screamed and shouted, the Taliban are coming! Go home! She hurried home, terrified, because she was not wearing a burqa that day. Mom then went out and immediately returned home, saying that the streets were full of Taliban soldiers and the shops were closed. At home that day, I heard about 10 gunshots.
We've been at home for a few days, and Dad is out shopping for food. I saw on the news that Taliban personnel holding guns past a wall with advertisements for women engraved on them, and female figures were sprayed with paint.
I want to escape from here, I think everyone wants to escape from this country, not only because of the war, but also because of the ——— I am a girl.
I work in youth empowerment camps.
Islamic countries have many restrictions and constraints on women, and in Afghanistan, the fundamentalist Taliban enforce their own strict version of Sharia law. Over the past 20 years, Kabul has been relatively open, but not in other areas. Before we moved to the capital, I lived in a city in eastern Afghanistan. The female friends there are all around 13 or 14 years old who stopped going to school and now have children. They said they didn't like this kind of life, but they had no choice.
My mom got married when she was 14. She said she knew nothing about marriage at the time and was forced into marriage by her father. When she got married, she had not yet experienced menarche. When she was 16, she had my eldest sister.
In addition to early marriage, domestic violence is a common occurrence for women. A relative in my family beat his wife against his will once, for a day and a night. He had several wives, one of whom he beat to death. My mom's sister was beaten by her husband to the point of being mentally dysfunctional and unable to speak for years. I saw on the news a woman who had been shot in the eye for seeing her brother alone.
Things like this, news, happen every day. No one cares, no one cares, as if in society, it is normal to treat women like this.
Last year, on a sunny day, we were having lunch at home when we suddenly heard two gunshots outside. An hour later, my mom went out and saw a little girl my age lying in a pool of blood. She was our neighbor, just a few tens of meters away from our house. My sister and I immediately went out to see how she was doing. At the scene, no one helped her, and everyone was even pointing. My sister and I would love to help her, at least to take her to the hospital! But the family wouldn't let us go, they said, and there was a good chance that someone would say we shot the girl.
The little girl probably lay in a pool of blood for two or three hours and died. My sister came home crying so sadly that she said we should help her! Then my family said, it's okay, maybe she's a bad girl, she did bad things.
The Taliban are making a comeback, and maybe I'll have to wear a burqa, a robe that only exposes your eyes. I didn't wear it, but my mother and eldest sister both did. They said wearing the blue or black burqas was impossible to breathe at all and unbearable, especially when it was hot. In recent years, they have stopped wearing burqas, but they always have a few pieces at home, just in case. Unexpectedly, it will come in handy now.
I come from a large family with six sisters and four brothers. My mother didn't have a job and my father was a supermarket security guard. The eldest brother in the family is the one who provides the most financial support to the family, he went to university and now works at the United Nations. I think the whole person changed after he went there, not like the men in society. He paid our tuition and wanted the sisters to study well. Our sisters also support each other. Because in such a social environment, if you don't support each other, you won't be able to survive. One of my married sisters often gave me money to pay for my English classes. She wanted me to have a better education and a better life than she did.
I think all Afghan girls dream of becoming a boy. Boys can even go out at night, but none of us girls can go out alone during the day. And most families are very patriarchal, and so are in our family. Mom was always paying attention to her sons, doing their laundry, always trying to make them happy. My sisters and I complained too, but my mother didn't admit it, and she said, I love you the same.
The sound of gunshots and explosions is a very common thing in memory.
One day when we were young, we went to the capital Kabul to play. Halfway through the car, the Taliban and government forces began the war. The Taliban lay in ambush in the mountains, and government troops hid in the bushes, shooting at each other. People on the road were screaming, my mother asked me to bury my head in the car, and my sister was crying. The bullet hit the window and shattered.
A month later, the Taliban attacked a school near my house, shooting and killing so many girls that I don't remember the numbers. In the seventh grade, a chair in the classroom suddenly fell down, scaring us all and running away. Because the sound of a chair falling down resembles a gunshot or a bombing, we thought the Taliban had come to our school. And I went to a private school that didn't offer An Islamic curriculum, and we were afraid that the Taliban would one day come and blow it up.
Am I afraid? I'm used to fear, more of anger. All of this makes me angry and makes me unbearable.
I see friends from other countries in the world posting pictures of themselves on social media. They travel and smile so brightly that I feel like they're living and we're just living.
I have an older sister who went to Japan to study in high school, and she said that in Japan, children wear helmets when riding bicycles to protect themselves. I heard this almost like a dream, it turns out that in other parts of the world, human life can be so precious! People can also be protected in this way! In Afghanistan, the streets are littered with children who have lost their families, who have no food, no water, and no one cares whether they live or die.
I donated clothes to "street children".
I've been working for street children since two years ago. Many people tell me they watched their parents get killed or die. Last year, I participated in a project called Youth Empowerment Camps. In the camp, I teach students thesis writing and reading. In the winter, I donate my clothes to these children. Let's hope they're at least not so cold on the street.
I also love to write articles and poems, especially the word "peace". I asked my brother to read to his daughters the poems I had written, and to be sure to emphasize, peace.
I once wrote: "For my mother, a man who lost his father in war, peace is a distant dream!" ...... If we look at the way of life, past and present, we can't find any change. Sixty years ago, my grandmother was afraid of losing her life, family and friends in the war. And now, sixty years later, we have the same fear in our lives! This will continue, passed on from generation to generation! But how long will it last? How much do we have to endure? Why should we keep apologizing? Sorry, but did nothing! ”
I want peace to be like water and food, without which man cannot survive, not as it is now, to endure for years to come.
Sometimes, I feel luckier than my peers, at least I can go to school. But now, schools are closed. My friends are desperate and confused about the future. I asked them, never to lose hope, and told them that we would continue to attend classes at home as well.
When my sister first wanted to go abroad to study, my parents did not agree, they felt that it was not a glorious thing to let their daughter go outside, but the sister insisted on going abroad, and the eldest brother also supported it, and they finally agreed. Now I also want to leave here and go to study in other countries, and they are also very supportive, saying that I will have a better life.
I don't want to get married right now. I feel like I'm going to do a lot of things, encourage more women, get them not to give up on school, save more street children, etc. I knew that when I got married, I would have children and would have to stay at home. I really want to help the other kids, and I hope my generation can get better. I am responsible for the next generation, even if it is a little help.
I wish my life could go back to the past, even though there is no hope now. Before the Taliban came, my friends and I liked to go to cafes to read and write homework. Now, the cafes are also closed. His brother, who works at the United Nations, was also frightened, fearing that the Taliban would break into his home to investigate. I just saw on the news today that the Taliban killed a man because of his background.
I saw on the news that the Taliban said it would guarantee women's right to study and work, and oh my God, did anyone really believe it? They always say we won't hurt you, but when they do become the ones who rule over us, they will break their previous promises. And what they're saying is that they will guarantee those rights, but according to Islamic tradition, which doesn't allow girls aged 12 or 13 to go to school anymore. Please don't believe them.
Yesterday, the Taliban announced the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The sister was sad, she said: "They are not a country built for us Afghan people at all, they are only for Sharia law." ”
Now my sister is fundraising to help our family leave Afghanistan, and we don't know where we're going to flee.
Before the Taliban took control of Kabul, I wrote this article:
"I wrote this letter today, Friday, July 27 at 6:40 p.m. I am writing for all the people of the world who can hear My Voice and Feel My Cry. This letter is only about the day I lived in Afghanistan.
I cried many times today. The news I have seen every day in these days includes the killing of 11 people in Parwan province, the killing of 100 civilians in Spindek County, and the shooting of our famous comedian Nazar Mohammad by the Taliban. The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation says 36,000 people have been displaced by the war in the past four months, and the Taliban have beheaded an Afghan translator... I felt bad when I saw the huge sadness in my mom's eyes. During the day today, a person from my home province told her that the Taliban forcibly took 40 girls away. I know that as soon as my mom sees me today, she thinks about what her daughter will experience in the future.
Today she said, thank God, there are still two burqas at home, and we may need it later. I cried, and I promised that even if they killed me, I wouldn't wear it. When the wind blew the door open, my sister thought there had been an explosion near her home. Last night, the sound of gunfire woke me up more than three times. The other day marked the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Enlightenment protests in Kabul, which killed and injured hundreds of people. This day reminds me of the most tragic accident of my life. It's hard, believe me, I don't have that much courage to tolerate all these things, I'm bored and I'm deeply saddened.
Why hasn't a country helped us? Why are people enjoying the opening ceremony of the Olympics while we struggle? Why are we punished every moment without doing anything wrong?
Why?
The world, please tell me,
The United Nations, please tell me,
UNICEF, please let me know,
Humans, please tell me. ”
postscript
On August 19, the Taliban announced the formation of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" and returned to power in Afghanistan. Afghan Vice President Saleh and Masood Jr. led government forces remained in the Panjahir Gorge for the last resistance.
On August 15, the Taliban stormed the city of Kabul, plunging the city into chaos. Thousands of Afghan civilians trying to flee were gathered at the airport, firing guns from both U.S. troops and the Taliban, stampedes on the scene, killing and wounding 40 people; a pair of teenage brothers fell from the plane.
According to Afghan media reports, on August 16, three people hung on the landing gear of the plane and tried to escape Kabul, and then unfortunately fell from the air.
In the city, there are almost no women on the streets, and many men go to supermarkets to buy burqas for their families.
Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said, "In our society, under our system, women will be very active. We are committed to (guaranteeing) women's rights under the Shariah system. They will work side by side with us. We promise the international community that there will be no discrimination. ”
Anamura Samangani, a member of the Taliban's Cultural Committee, also said women were "the main victims of afghanistan's more than 40-year crisis." "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan does not want women to be victims anymore." "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is prepared to provide an environment for women to work and study and to have women in different (government) structures in accordance with Islamic law and our cultural values," he said. ”
This time, how different will the Taliban be from the last time when they take power about women's right to education and work? To what extent will they keep their promises? This is what Afghan women care about, and it is what the world should care about.
The protagonist of the manuscript "On Earth" is a 17-year-old Afghan girl. 17 years old, the flower season of life. But in turbulent Afghanistan, at this age, Alicia Hamida is faced with a life-or-death decision. She lived in an enlightened family and received a Western education from an early age. She enjoyed some modern civilization and hoped that Afghanistan would make a real difference in her generation. She also did it herself, collecting clothes for street children and teaching them to read and write.
When the Taliban invaded the city of Kabul, Alicia Hamida saw the fear of her mother and sister, who said they were fortunate to have burqas at home. Born three years after U.S. troops entered Afghanistan, she had not experienced Taliban rule, but her sister, mother, grandmother had all experienced it, and she had heard too many past atrocities.
Afghans waiting on the tarmac to leave Kabul airport.
The burqa is a metaphor for the identity and status of Afghan women. Alicia Hamida said determined not to put on a burqa, "even if they kill me." "This is a 17-year-old girl who has shown the greatest courage in the face of an unknowable future.
This is not to encourage all Afghan women to come forward, like this 17-year-old girl. However, they live in this world, in the same era as us, and their fate deserves everyone's concern.