The trainer warned her that if she fell again and felt ashamed of herself she would be kicked out of the practice and she would have to run around the gym by herself until the end of training.

When I look above, I see a different world that I wish I was born in. In this saintly place, I feel that I am Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, a famous astronomer from centuries ago in my hometown of Ghazni.

We need to provide support for disabled students and teach society to accept them so that they don’t feel excluded but instead can be productive members of society.

The economic empowerment of women is not a women’s issue, it is a development issue.

There is confusion in people’s minds between the tradition and culture forced upon them by the Taliban, and the real Islamic law.

In a far place, in the most remote alleys of Afghanistan, underground, in the corner of a dark room, for a woman prisoner, life means searching for sunshine.

Women need to change. We must take a good look at ourselves and then, bit by bit, the society will be changed. It is possible for us to change the next generation.

Sometimes I become sad and whisper: “God, I feel so poor not to have a home on any part of your earth!” At once a voice responds: “Don’t be sad. You are more like a swallow than a flower.

When we reached the entrance, a security guard looked at us strangely, as if he were wondering where these two Afghans came from, or thinking that we must have lost our way. He did not let us through.