By Homa Amiri
I am an ambitious, dreamy girl from Afghanistan who has always aspired to be a positive personality with the ultimate focus of inspiring the people of my country. I have always believed my dreams could come true by the acquisition of a good education and therefore I have worked, studied and persevered under difficult conditions.
Dreams can be shattered though, and life can become very painful and filled with sorrow. The Taliban changed the destiny of women and girls in Afghanistan when, as one of their first tasks, they closed the gate of education and knowledge to girls.
We have been deprived of all our basic rights as citizens of this country for two years now and no matter how much we scream; we cannot be heard. There is nowhere to take this agony and no one who could truly understand the pain of not being able to continue education. I know I am not the only one feeling this pain, it is also the pain of millions of other Afghan girls who are becoming lost in the dark, perhaps forever.
These days I paint my pain on paper. The images represent the dark days of the girls of this prison-like land. I sometimes find it almost impossible to bring myself to paint with so much despair. I find myself quite often in absolute darkness with no ability to find a way forward and there is no way back. I cry when I realise that there are so many dead ends.
But still those sweet dreams don’t stop and they motivate me to do something and to not despair. I go back to my paper and pencil and start to draw again. I often laugh and cry as I work and I sometimes even forget the obstacles that stand between me and my lessons, between me and my classmates – the obstacles between me and my dreams.
I wonder whether being a girl means that you are expected to sit in a corner and regret your life and that you should not study and achieve your dreams? I say no! We are human and we should enjoy all our basic human rights. In my opinion girls are like angels of goodness and mercy whose wings should never be broken. Let them fly.
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