When Firoozeh’s husband left home to join military service, she and her five children remained in a poor village on the outskirts of Nili, the capital of Daykundi province.
Firoozeh’s husband went to Kandahar province to serve in the army and to earn a living for his children. She does not remember the exact year her husband left home. But it has been a year and a half since Firoozeh’s husband is no longer in Kandahar.
When Khan Ali decided to join the Afghan National Army, Firoozeh believed that her husband along with the other soldiers would provide security to the people and children. But that did not happen. A year and a half ago, a messenger came to their village to inform Firoozeh that Khan Ali was killed in a battle. That day Firoozeh was left alone, wondering whether to grieve for her husband’s death or for the lack of resources to transfer his body to the village.
Firoozeh says that the villagers finally gathered and came with her to Nili to transport her husband’s body. Ali Khan was killed after several years of serving for the Afghan National Army in Kandahar province.
Now it is one and a half years that Firoozeh and her children don’t have even a piece of bread to eat. She lives in her brother’s mud house which has a broken door. It is in Sangmoom village, on the outskirts of Nili, where there is no job for women. “My home is far from Nili and I cannot find a job to earn a living here; But if I go to Nili, and find a job, I can’t afford to pay rent,” Firoozeh said.
Firoozeh now lives with her four children. She was forced to marry off her eldest daughter who is 16 years old. Her daughter is suffering too.
While her husband was killed in the service, she said the government did not help her.
