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From Afghanistan, with feeling: The Hindu
Chennai, Oct 15: From Kabul they came, nine women, bearing tales, wounds and memories, veils wrapped around their heads. After a difficult two and a half decades, Afghanistan`s women can leave their burkhas at home.
Chennai, Oct 15: From Kabul they came, nine women, bearing tales, wounds and memories, veils wrapped around their heads. After a difficult two and a half decades, Afghanistan's women can leave their burkhas at home.
These women belong to post-war Afghanistan, but they have lived, married and had their children during the Taliban regime. "It has been a tough life for us, before and during the war. The Taliban did not behave like humans, especially with us, women," says Sheerin, one of the nine women who are in the T.T. Ranganathan Clinical Research Foundation, Chennai, to undergo training as part of the Colombo Plan Drug Advisory Programme. "We could not do what we wanted, or wear what we wanted, could not speak, sing or dance. It was terrible," she adds.
It has been a while since the Taliban were ousted, but when she closes her eyes, in her mind, the images still live.
The same is the case for Wasima, who continued to live in Kabul during the war. She was a teacher, who defying the Taliban, ran at her home a small school for girls — clandestinely, of course.
"Who are they to take education from us?" she asks in native Pharsi, her assertiveness evident not only in her words but also in the tone of her voice and the tilt of her face.
Perhaps because she is slightly older, Saleha Amieney's anger is of a tired sort. Perhaps it is so because what she has seen troubles her immensely. "I was a nurse in a hospital for the mentally ill. I would wear a burkha and go to the hospital every day, even during the war, to help women suffering from war trauma," she recalls. However, she does not tarry in the past, but quickly moves over to the present. "We are happy to be in India. We want to go back and do what you people are doing here now. We are learning a lot," she says.
Including English. The women think learning to speak one "international language" is very important, they believe that it will lead to development, even as they are getting used to a new feeling of hope. They nurture hopes today for a better Afghanistan, for one that will be "peaceful, progressive, as beautiful as India, maybe better". As the people of a nation that has just recovered from war, their only dreams seem to be for the nation.
What about individual dreams, then?
When Panwasha Samady, one of the younger people in the team says, "I want to be able to live forever in Afghanistan", the others nod quietly, but firmly, in affirmation. As if there is nothing they would like better.
It has been a while since the Taliban were ousted, but when she closes her eyes, in her mind, the images still live.
The same is the case for Wasima, who continued to live in Kabul during the war. She was a teacher, who defying the Taliban, ran at her home a small school for girls — clandestinely, of course.
"Who are they to take education from us?" she asks in native Pharsi, her assertiveness evident not only in her words but also in the tone of her voice and the tilt of her face.
Perhaps because she is slightly older, Saleha Amieney's anger is of a tired sort. Perhaps it is so because what she has seen troubles her immensely. "I was a nurse in a hospital for the mentally ill. I would wear a burkha and go to the hospital every day, even during the war, to help women suffering from war trauma," she recalls. However, she does not tarry in the past, but quickly moves over to the present. "We are happy to be in India. We want to go back and do what you people are doing here now. We are learning a lot," she says.
Including English. The women think learning to speak one "international language" is very important, they believe that it will lead to development, even as they are getting used to a new feeling of hope. They nurture hopes today for a better Afghanistan, for one that will be "peaceful, progressive, as beautiful as India, maybe better". As the people of a nation that has just recovered from war, their only dreams seem to be for the nation.
What about individual dreams, then?
When Panwasha Samady, one of the younger people in the team says, "I want to be able to live forever in Afghanistan", the others nod quietly, but firmly, in affirmation. As if there is nothing they would like better.