Roqia Rezayee
Education is a fundamental right provided to all children all over the world. Girls and boys without distinction go to school to learn and work in every country on the planet.
Except Afghanistan.
Ask any girl who lives in this country, “How do you feel that you can’t go to school?” This question alone causes pain right in the heart of an Afghan girl. She will answer with a sob that she became the sacrifice for her own country.
I am an Afghan girl and I want to share my memories of a golden time.
I was a school student. What days I had learning and free to do so! In the mornings, I would open my eyes with hope. I had a goal – and it was simply to go to school. I would get up from bed happy and full of energy. I washed my face, ate my breakfast, and put on my school uniform all while looking forward to going to school with my friends. And when I arrived at school, I was greeted by teachers and my classmates. How pleasant it was!
Now, the simplicity of such days are like a dream out of reach for me, I had real motivation then. But unfortunately, I can’t live those days anymore. The door of the school is closed for me and my friends, I can’t enter and study. There’s no classes for me to attend.
In the mornings, I don’t open my eyes with happiness and I’ve lost my sense of a goal. It has been years since I’ve stayed home, every day, day after day, with no special activity or focus. Some days I study, or read story books, or I sit and write the good days that I had on paper. Sometimes, the sight of my school uniform will ignite a deep longing to put it on again and go to the classroom, just like before.
To have such dreams and hopes drift farther and farther away every day is extremely tough. Time moves forward and the days, months, and years pass, yet I remain still and stuck with my unfulfilled goals, hopes and dreams.
I’m afraid. I’m afraid that I will disappoint my dreams. I had a strong will, but I fear that these obstacles without end will completely break me by putting my dreams out of reach and weakening my determination.
I pray to God to give the girls of Afghanistan enough strength and courage to rise above these difficult circumstances with pride and achieve their dreams and aspirations.
Life without a goal is an incredibly heavy burden which Afghan girls are enduring and fighting with every breath for hope for tomorrow and for the future.
May one day all the girls of Afghanistan learn and work without prejudice, and may all the girls achieve their goals and go to school again.
