August 15: Final Exam

August 15, 2021, was an important day in the history of Afghanistan. On this date, countless changes and developments took place in Afghanistan. The Taliban took control of our country, and the country and its people witnessed war, bloodshed, genocide, and countless hardships during those days.

August 15 was not an ordinary day. It was a day when hearts were broken and dreams were destroyed. Grief and pain were everywhere, but the pain of girls was something else entirely—girls whose dreams were buried that day. Who knows what was in their sorrowful, wounded hearts?

All their dreams were destroyed before their eyes. In their own homes, they were deprived of the right to be free. In a place where their dreams should have grown wings and taken flight, those wings were broken one by one.

August 15 was the day when girls returned home from behind the school gates with wounded hearts and tearful eyes.

That day, everyone was worried about their future. Everyone listened to the news and followed the media, hoping to hear some good news, but each report seemed worse than the last, causing even more pain in people's hearts.

The news was filled with war, violence, recruiting young people for fighting, house-to-house searches, taking girls away, migration, unemployment, and poverty.

Everyone simply wished to leave the country as soon as possible because there seemed to be no place to live here. When American planes were taking people away for free, young people were even willing to risk their lives just to leave the country.

After the Taliban came to power, people faced severe poverty. Child and underage marriages increased, and only a small number of girls and boys were able to continue their education in private courses. Most of them, despite being very young, were forced to work just to earn a piece of bread. Because of severe poverty, people looked toward foreign countries for assistance. However, because there were so many people living in poverty, much of the aid did not reach everyone, and those tired eyes were met with disappointment.

And what about the innocent Afghan women who are waiting for the day when the school doors will open again and they will be allowed to study and work? Women are now living in conditions where, in the eyes of many, they are not even considered human beings.

A woman has the right to choose and to live. A woman is a human being too. Nowhere in Islam or the Quran does it say that women have no right to study or work.

No society can succeed without women because women play an important role in society.

Although several years have passed since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, every August 15, those difficult days return to the people of our country, pouring salt into the wounds in their hearts.

Our unfortunate generation has seen war from the moment we were born through our youth and until death. During our youth, while trying to study in schools and courses, many lost their precious lives in suicide attacks. Their pens were broken, their books were burned and torn apart so that they could not study. But instead of a pen, we wrote with our blood. We will never surrender. We will continue to move forward, even after being burned and rebuilt. We learned that if they imprison us inside our homes, our silence will become our voice. In our country, children grew up without ever having the chance to be children. They were born into adulthood, and from childhood they were treated like grown-ups.

In other countries, until children reach the age of 18, they are considered minors and young. But in our country, when we reach the age of seven or eight, we are forced to behave like adults and begin struggling with the hardships of life.

We have lived through all these years, yet we still have not seen or felt peace. We only know it by its name. We hope for the day when we can truly feel peace—not somewhere else, but in our own country.