If I were in Chicago speaking on behalf of the women of my country, I would ask for help for Afghan women to build more schools. I would ask for support for Afghan policewomen and female teachers and for help to build more hospitals for Afghan women and children in areas where women are not allowed to go to the hospital.
So I have a question for NATO and the USA: why didn’t they invite the women?
The Afghan people had lost two of their heroes… the Taliban had taken over the country in such a short time.
The family had decided to kill us. They not only wanted to kill us, but stone us to death to teach women and girls a lesson.
I feel proud and so lucky because I am a mother now. I am going crazy anticipating the time my son will call me “Mummy.”
If I were a good artist and had a block of stone, a hammer and chisel, I would carve a beautiful woman.
You might say, “This is crazy. You are only one person. You cannot fight against an entire government.” But I remind people who say this, that revolutions start with one person.
Consider Parwin, the sixteen-year-old girl who agreed to marry an old warlord if he would stop fighting against the government.
First, I say Salaam, or peace be with you, to those men who, against all odds, stand behind women’s progress even if it forces them to conduct their lives as secretly as many women.
I enjoyed life in Iran because we had electricity and we did not have to pump the well for ten minutes just to fill a 20-liter barrel. We did not have to carry our clothes to the river to do our laundry.
History is changed by the small actions of ordinary people. —Zahra A.
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