Essay: Afghan Student's Hopes For Education

Four years ago, I would have said with a wide smile that there was no difference between living and simply being alive, but now that I am skilled at it, I would have said something different.

I now understand what it's like to be alive and not really live, how it feels to watch your dreams being killed in front of your eyes, how it feels to have your wings cut when you desire flying from the bottom of your heart, and it’s all you used to think about since the day you were born. I also understand how it feels to watch the years you imagined would be the best years of your life burned and ruined in front of your eyes, and you just can’t do anything.

It's pretty hard and challenging to be a girl at all, but being an Afghan girl is much harder. First of all, we all Afghans lost our motherland, where we call it our home, where we made 99% of our memories, where we used to live all together no matter what, and we were there for each other in all circumstances. Then it just became so specialized for Afghan women and girls. The land of our hopes suddenly became our golden prison. Everything changed—from the grateful sunrises to the beautiful sunsets, from the shiny stars to the pretty moon nights of Kabul. Everything changed in a completely different way. There is no light; rather, the sun rises every day. There is no peace; rather, there isn’t any war at the moment. Every day, rather than opening our eyes with the hope of living our dreams, we meet a new rule that’s surely for Afghan girls and women’s. From the first day that the Taliban took over Afghanistan until now, they have passed 114 laws just about Afghan women in the name of religion, security, and culture. While there isn’t even a single point of these taught in any of the named things,.

Can you imagine not working for your dreams anymore? Can you imagine not educating yourself? Can you imagine not hanging out with your friends? How about wearing your own style with your favorite color? And at the end, you can’t go out, even for shopping, because there is a big probability of you being arrested by a group of terrorists, not knowing where they will take you or what they will do to you and your family. Imagine a girl who dreams of traveling the world one day, coming all the way to a place she can’t even go to a park.

We are all hanging on, still dreaming, still talking to the stars about our future big plans, and still there is hope shining in the bottom of our hearts. Every day, I hope for good news despite knowing it is not possible because it is coming from a group of terrorists.

You work hard in 12 year of school not losing hope despite of worst security in country, attacks and explosion occurred in everywhere, rockets being fired to all the parts of city, attending in biggest national exam to succeed in your favorite field while there is a big possibility of an attack or booming and at the end when all of your hard works are paid off a group of people which were the reason for all your fears are coming and rolling over your land and not letting you to continue your education, work on your field, hang out with friends, not letting you to travel alone, not letting you to go to parks or recreational places even with your family and last but not least not letting you to go outside.

The only way for you is to leave your country with the first chance you get, but how? With which money? It’s even more unattainable; they even broke the economy. There is a point where you will feel that, in this big world, just being an Afghan girl is your biggest mistake.

With the hope that no little girl's desire will ever be left in her huge heart.