Cry of an Afghan women

This is letter of an Afghan women published in Readers column of The Frontier Post, Dec.3, 1998. This is just an example, thousands of Afghan women are experiencing such horrible catastrophes everyday under the rule of the criminal fundamentalists in Afghanistan.

This is an open letter for all Pakistanis and Muslim world. I want to expose certain criminals and unveil their ferocious atrocities, to all of my Muslim brethren. I am an Afghan Muslim woman of Hazara origin. My age is 44 and I am reasonably educated as compared to most of the women in Afghanistan. I was living in Mazar-e-Sharif with my husband and two children, a son and a daughter. My husband had a leather shop in Mazar-e-Sharif. Two days after the fall of city, persons belonging to the Taliban regime forcefully entered my house, six in number. They asked my husband about our religious background, when my husband couldn't answered them, they started beating him with their rifle butts. I started calling for mercy but all in vane. My son couldn't resist and tried to stop them, one of those cruel persons shot my son twice. My son died on the spot. He was just 19. Seeing this, my husband tried to kick the person who shot my son, they immediately shot my husband as well. This all was so much shocking for me that I started shouting and crying. Seeing this, two of the persons came to me and slapped me and my daughter and then kicked us. After that they left. When I turn towards my husband, he was already dead. They annihilated my innocent family for nothing. We kept on crying and shouting for two days, there was no one to help us. There was no one to bury them. A day later, I got another shock of my life, the cruel Taliban brutally killed my father and two brothers. My mother couldn't bear this butchery of her family members, she too died a week later. For few days I lost my senses. I might have died too after such a big tragedy but perhaps for the sake of my daughter I am still alive. There was no one to listen to us and give us justice in Mazar. I have to beg in the streets of Mazar for food. I used to tell the tragedy to every passerby but I was usually asked to keep quite otherwise we will meet the same fate as of my family. One day while I was begging I came across a foreign journalist. I told him the story. He was a kind person. After some days he took me and my daughter to Peshawar. My host in Peshawar is a nice person. He is taking care of us. I was told that Pakistan is an independent country and unlike Afghanistan, press and media here are free and there is no need to fear, therefore I am sending my tragic story to you. I know that like me, there are thousands of Afghan women who met the same fate. My question to the Muslim world is, Is there no one in the Muslim world to stop the cruel Taliban from killing innocent people? Who will give me the justice? Is the conscious of all Muslims around the world dead, that they are deliberately ignoring the atrocities of the Taliban. Is the blood of my and other thousands of families gone to waste? There are no sons left who can listen to their mother's voice? No fathers who console his daughter? Is there no Mohammad bin Qasim left in the Muslim world to liberate my people from savage clutches of the Taliban and give us justice?

An Afghan woman

Taliban massacred thousands of civilians in Mazar-e-Sharif

h t t p : / / w w w . r a w a . o r g