Mahtab: A Young Girl Raised Up in Kabul and Starting Her Undergraduate Study in Bangladesh

I am Mahtab, a young girl from Afghanistan. My parents were immigrants for many years in Iran and Pakistan. Even my mom could not see Afghanistan from her childhood until she turned 22. But I was raised in Kabul, the city of love and beauty, full of cheerful youths but always gray, since the shadow of war never changed the mood of the city. I’m twenty-one years old now, and I have never seen the happiness of the people in my country.
When I was a student at school and before the Taliban, explosions and suicide were always expected, and it happened almost every day. Many and many times, we have all experienced losing a member of our family, a friend, or even a relative in our lives in one of those explosions.
All we had experienced before the Taliban was shown in the media and around the world, but after collapsing Afghanistan, everything is vague, and the media, under the rules of the Taliban, cannot report what exactly is going on in a country by the name of Afghanistan.
On August 14, 2021, I was getting ready for the final exam of my English class. Since all the other provinces of the country were collapsing one after another and security was at its worst time ever, our teacher decided to take the final exam a few days earlier than its scheduled time. My father could not sleep at night, and he used to follow the news every minute, either on television or social media. We were all hopeful; nobody could believe the country would collapse.
Early in the morning on August 15, 2021, around 7 a.m., my brother woke me up, and he said,” Dad is going outside; he emphasized that we should be careful and not leave the house since the Taliban seems to be near Kabul doors”. I could not believe it, but just in a few hours, Kabul collapsed.
Several months passed. Like a dream, I still couldn’t believe it. But after a while, I saw how much everything had changed. I stayed at home for several months and could not even pass my final exam. I remember I had applied for one of the scholarships in India, and half of the steps were completed. I also remember how much I hoped to be able to continue studying abroad, but all of them remained incomplete.
No English class, Not any scholarship
And at that time, even my mother and father had lost their jobs. After a long time, I decided to continue my English classes again. The strict laws of the Taliban cast a shadow on the girls. We all had to wear long clothes and cover our faces. Even studying for two or three hours a day outside the home was difficult in the warm weather of the summer. We had to wear a long, black hijab and cover our faces with a mask.
My mother, who has been teaching in various schools in Kabul for more than 12 years, could have been told that she would be getting fired every day due to the Taliban’s laws for women. She had worked hard for years to reach the position she was in; she had taught justice and equality to her students, and now she herself could not stand against all those inequalities. My mother and father, who realized how much I was suffering in that situation, used to encourage me every day to leave the country and continue my education. After applying for a large number of scholarships, I was able to get accepted to the Asian University for Women, and this time it was impossible for a girl or a woman to leave the country alone and without Mahram (a man who is the closest to a girl or woman, like a brother, father, or husband). I came to Bangladesh with the help of the university and was accompanied by my father. Maybe it was the last place I thought about being there.
Now I am getting an education here at Asian University for Women, and I am glad to see that many girls have the opportunity to pursue their education outside of Afghanistan, but I have always been looking for a way to assist the girls who have not had the chance to educate in my country. Maybe the best part of all the difficulties was enrolling in an advanced online English class, and after several months, my teacher created classes for girls and women to take online English classes. I am teaching some of these classes, and sometimes I feel very sad that I am not able to assist more, but it makes me happy when I see that there are some students who are enjoying learning something new.
For many years, women and girls fought in my country for a right that no one was willing to accept. In a country where men did not know anything called “women’s rights”, they rolled up their sleeves and tried for equality and freedom. Despite all the dangers, they were killed and oppressed, but in the end, they raised the name of their country with pride. But today, when Afghan women and girls are deprived of their smallest rights and have nothing to stand up against injustice, and they need the help of other people in the world more than ever, no one pays attention to them. Oppression never lasts forever, and maybe one day the women and girls of my country will stand against oppression and fight for freedom.

Note: Mahtab lives in Bangladesh and is a student at Asian University for Women. She is about to start her undergraduate study.