“Why shouldn’t we have the same rights

Hello and thank you all.

Personally, as a politically active person in society, I was very appalled when the already narrow medical field for girls got narrower. From the start we were shocked by the talks surrounding Hijab, but tried to stay positive and focus on doing everything we could to not give the Taliban a reason to ban girls from going to university. We still had hope for the future and a belief to find a way to help our sisters and family members. As a representative of a group of 45 students who studied with us, we faced many problems.

Personally, I was facing many social and economic problems; seeing my sister not being able to go to school and graduate high school the same way I did was very hard for me. To see other girls in my community who had so much potential and wanted to become the future of the country no longer having the means to do so. I was teaching in a school when the government changed the laws, and that was just the end of the school year when we were having final exams that the schools closed.

I had many students who called me and were crying asking about school, asking when the schools would open again and what would happen to their future. I was trying to calm them down and make them feel better. I tried to give them hope that one day the school doors will open again. But it didn’t get better. It became worse.

I was the teacher of the class and was receiving many calls each day from students about when class would start but I had nothing to tell them. I didn’t know what to say to them and how to make them calm down or how to reduce their stress. I was seeing my friends, my sister, my classmates, and girls in my community who were not able to do anything about their future. They were depressed and in a dark moment in life.

All of this pain depressed me as I wondered what would happen with our future and how we should deal with this. Every time we heard news about girls’ education my father would call all of my sisters and me to check what they were going to say, but time and time again we felt hopelessness and sadness. With all of those economic issues and hopelessness, I started to go back to the private university to start my education. It was just less than a week away from the start of our first test, with all of us studying hard to get good grades and pass, when we heard that the college gates would be closed for girls, that we would not be allowed to go back to the university and take the test.

I received many calls from my friends and classmates, once again wondering what was going to happen and what we would do. We were crying because we knew we would not be able to go back to classes any time soon. My eyes were full of tears too but I was trying to give them confidence and help them by telling them good news and giving hope that they would be able to go back to university.

We all went to the university door in the hope that they would allow us in, but we received calls not to go there and that it would be dangerous for us, that people may hurt us. At that moment my eyes filled with tears. I tried to go to my job to distract myself and relieve myself from this pain. Girls like me were the hope of our families.

I had to stay strong and deal with this because there was nobody who could reduce this pain; I didn’t want to bring hopelessness to my younger sister's faces. On that dark day everyone was sad.

I saw a girl in the street alone who was crying about not being able to go to school. I went to her and tried to calm her down but I was not able to control my own tears. I learned to stay strong in hard times and to control my fears and help others like this girls, but this was the time when I remembered my own future. I remembered what will happen to me and what would happen to my dreams. I didn't want to cry, at least in front of her, so I wouldn’t make her hopeless. I wanted to give her hope for a bright future, When I started coming back from my job I wasn’t able to control my pain and started crying.

People were surprised when they saw me; everyone could see and feel the pain that Afghan girls were feeling at that moment. I was always asking why we shouldn’t go to school; because of not having Hijab, but we all do. Because of not participating in our religion, but we do. Because of Islam, but one of the biggest rights that has been given to every girl in Islam is education.

So, what is the problem?

Why shouldn’t we have the same rights that every other girl in this world has?

Why are we not granted an education?

I don’t know how to talk about this, how to express this feeling and to whom I should tell this to. Me and girls like me who are all in this classroom, we all have the same feeling and have this experience in our lives. This has always been a pressure on Afghan girls to have a peaceful and war free future. I am now asking, “why?”

On behalf of all 45 of my (former) students, I thank you.

Yours,

R----(former) Graduate Student and Teacher

The Health Sciences School

Ena’am University

Kabul, Afghanistan