By Somaya Mandgar
In a village in the center of Bamyan, lives a woman with white hair and a wrinkled face who we’ll call Salima. No one knows her exact age. Many call her “crazy”. Children like to play pranks on her. Sometimes she’s even physically harassed.
Salima herself can’t explain what’s happened to her. She’s too confused. But neighbours and relatives say it goes back to the Taliban’s first rule in the 1990s when they murdered her children in front of her.
Rukhshana Media spoke directly to witnesses to confirm each detail of her story. To tell it, we are using pseudonyms to protect people’s safety.
Salima lived in the Yakawalang district of Bamyan 25 years ago. She had four children including two young sons.
On January 8, 2001 the Taliban defeated the forces of Hizb-e-Wahdat Islamic Afghanistan (a Hazara-Shia political party) and entered Yakawlang district.
Mohammad Aziz, 53, one of Salima’s relatives said they began massacring more than 300 civilians.
“When the Taliban captured Bamyan for the first time, they did not show mercy to anyone,” he said. “They even killed babies in cradle with guns shafts.”
In a 2001 report, Amnesty International documented the details of 170 victims and estimated that many more than 300 may have died. Victims included farmers, teachers, workers, shopkeepers, a doctor, carpenters, office workers, a religious leader, religious school students, human rights activists and bakers.
One of them was Salima’s 18-year-old son named Naeem. He was beheaded in front of her.
“(Taliban) left his body on the ground and laughed at the screams, cries and moans of his mother and young sisters,” Mohammad said.
Salima’s other young son tried to run away from the soldiers but was wounded and taken to Sia Darrah village.
“The ruthless and savage soldiers of the Taliban took him from the mountain area to Tagab area and dragged him over dirt and stones with a rope,” Mohammad said. “And when they reached the village, after various tortures, they shot him.”
After Salima saw the murder of her second son, she fainted.
“When I remember the killing of both of Salima’s sons, I can’t hold back my tears,” Aziz continued. “After her sons were killed, Salima couldn’t cope anymore, she was getting older day by day, she was very isolated, she used to go to her sons’ graves and cry for days.”
She gradually lost her mental balance and after two years she didn’t know anyone anymore, was talking nonsense and cursing everyone.
Mohammad Aziz and Salima’s husband took her to the Yakawlang hospital for treatment. “The doctors said that she has a nerve disorder and that she should be examined by a mental-neurological doctor,” Aziz said. “But we don’t have a doctor like that in the hospital.”
For years, Salima was left to herself. Mohammad Aziz says they’ve been waiting for a miracle from God to improve her condition. But it never happened. Her mental and emotional condition worsened each day until she did something that local saw as beyond reason. On a hot summer day in July 2014, she bathed in the river in public.
When Salima’s husband and the village elders heard about it, they decided to take her to Kabul for treatment, because in their eyes it was a great disgrace.
Salima’s husband put his land up as a guarantee and the elders of the village took Salima to Kabul’s Aliabad hospital, a special hospital for mental disorders.
A month later, Mohammad Aziz accompanied Salima and her husband to learn the diagnosis, The answer of the Kabul doctors was disappointing.
“After many examinations, the doctors told us that our patient suffered a very strong mental shock and will not recover easily,” Aziz says. “They told us that if you had brought the patient earlier, the treatment would have been easier, but now it is too late.”
Doctors prescribed medicine for Salima so her condition would not worsen. They recommended that she be treated with kindness. Salima never returned to Yakawlang. On the advice of others, her husband rented a house for her in the center of Bamyan to be away from the graves of her children, hoping she could be free of their memory.
Salima has been living in the center of Bamyan for about eight years now. But her mental condition has not improved. “As long as she is taking medicine, her condition is better, but when her medication runs out, her condition deteriorates,” her husband said. “We haven’t had a single day of happiness since Salima has been mentally ill. We wish God would take Salima to Himself. It would be a relief for her and for all of us.”
There is no maintenance system in provincial Afghanistan for people with mental illness. Last year, on World Mental Health Day, Save the Children Fund warned Afghanistan was on the brink of a disaster. Two decades of conflict have left almost half the population with mental disorders.
That’s made even worse by the way they’re treated. Mohammad Aziz says that Salima is a victim of Taliban violence on the one hand and social ignorance on the other. She has been stoned, cursed and called “crazy” many times: “From the time when Salima is mentally ill until now, neighbors and people always call her by bad names, when they see her outside, they make jokes with her. They beat her, taunt her and call her crazy.”
Salima’s husband is alive but he refused to talk about her condition. Their two daughters have married and moved out of home.
Mehrmah, 49, is one of Salima’s neighbors in the center of Bamyan. “Sometimes Salima’s condition is better, but sometimes it deteriorates so much that the neighbors suffer from her,” she said.
Sometimes Salima assaults others, Mermah added. The elders, who know about her pain, pass by her with pity. But sometimes children harass her. Mehrmah wants national and international organizations to help treat Salima and people like her.
Mohammad Salim, 31, studied psychology and mental health at Bamyan University and lives in Salima’s neighborhood of Salima. He said the insults and social humiliation Salima has suffered has been a big reason why she hasn’t recovered. Whenever she leaves the house, street children harass her and abuse her to see her reaction. “Even people with children call her crazy or disgraced by God and do nothing to help. Salima should be treated like a sick person, but instead of being kind to Salima, our people harass her, and humiliate her which is their usual habit. Until people treat Salima like a patient, she won’t recover.”
Now, the woman who was a victim of Taliban violence is again living in the group’s shadow. She can’t understand it, but the perpetrators of her sons’ murder have become the city’s ruler again.
* The names have been chosen as pseudonyms at the request of the interviewees.
