He was a gangster related to a large, powerful criminal group, and his cohorts were trying to rescue him from the prison. They were shooting carelessly without thinking of bystanders on the street.

Yet I love this city, not because I grew up and studied here, but because it is lovely, yeah it is. It may sound weird to you, but for me it has been always stunning: Kabul nights, juma Friday prayers, small bazaars with narrow roads and crowds of people, yellow and white taxis with their storyteller drivers, folklore music that you can hear in every shop or restaurant, Kabul mornings that always begin with noise and cheers. Kabul is simply awesome.

“He said if I marry him, he will let my mom and sister live in his house and will support us financially and pay for Mom’s treatment. But it doesn’t end there—he wants me to stop going to school! I will marry this guy anyway. I cannot wait for my imaginary prince about whom I wrote my poems. My mom doesn’t have much time before she will lose her vision.

In the Western World, Muslim women are seen as oppressed and passive. Most think that Muslim women’s rights are violated according to Islamic law. Wearing a hijab doesn’t make a woman passive because scarf covers the head, not in the minds, of Muslim women.