Province: Kabul
In 2021, I was in the eighth grade. After the fall of Afghanistan, when the gates of the school reopened, I put on my uniform and made my way to school. However, the gate to the girls’ school remained closed.
A Taliban fighter was sitting outside our school gate and told us to return home, saying that girls were not allowed to enter the school at that time. My eyes filled with tears, and my throat tightened with emotion. I pleaded, “Uncle, please, allow us to attend school. What is our wrong? Why are we not allowed to study?” He responded sharply, “Go, stop talking, you are girl, go home to learn chores.”
His words weighed heavily on me, and I, along with the other female students, returned home.
That day was the last time we stood before the closed school doors.
The following three years have been incredibly difficult for me. I lost three years of education, and all that I had learned over the previous eight years faded from memory. I eventually hid my books in a corner of the house because I could no longer bear the pain of seeing them or being reminded of what I have lost.
