"I was twelve years old when I got married. After my father's death, my mother remarried and my father-in-law forced her to give me to a 74-year-old man as a wife. I was little and I don't remember much of that period. I wanted to go to school and my husband agreed. But, we lived in the country and the school was far away. So, I remained illiterate" (...)
Read More >>
Twelve-year-old Mirwais has been in the Kapisa orphanage for several years. His father was killed while fighting against the Taliban. A year later, his mother also died of an illness, which Mirwais called "yellow-eye disease", probably a form of hepatitis. This is how he described his family situation, "My father died in the war and my mother from illness. So, I'm fatherless and motherless" (...)
Read More >>
As a child, Nazifa longed to study, but was never able to go to school. She felt that she was missing something important saying, "I sometimes felt as if I had a veil over my eyes. I also got into trouble because I couldn't read". There were too many things she could not understand or know. While doing household chores one day, she threw away some of her parent's important documents because they just looked like ordinary paper to her (...)
Read More >>
Aqela, twenty-nine years old, waits for us on the street. She wears a black coat and a long black skirt. A black scarf leaves uncovered only her wonderful blue eyes. We walk with her down a street too narrow and steep for cars. We cross a gate and two small courtyards, and then we slip into a room. The room is gloomy. The red carpet on the floor is worn out. A mezzanine barely allows you to stand. There is only one window, very small, hidden by the curtains. A neon light makes the faces and her story more heartbreaking (...)
Read More >>
Tarana grew up and went to school in Iran, returned with her family to Afghanistan, was married and gave birth to two children. The youngest had cerebral palsy and other major complications. The difficulties arising from these serious illnesses led to the breaking down of an already fragile marriage (...)
Read More >>
Laleh is a graceful girl, small in stature, with a sad if not desperate expression. Three years ago her husband died in an explosion. They searched for the body without finding any evidence of it. Since then, she has been left alone with her children: a girl aged ten, a boy aged nine and a girl aged four (...)
Read More >>
Parisa left Afghanistan with her family during the first Taliban regime (1996-2001) while still a child and grew up and studied in Iran. At the age of 16, there was the first leap into the dark. She was given in marriage by her father to a perfect stranger, with no possibility of opposing it. Parisa was patient and lucky. Over time she managed to build a loving relationship with her husband, with whom she had three children (...)
Read More >>