Maliha is a married housewife in Kabul with two sons.
Kabul— I have heard that the Human Rights Commission is a place that gives people their rights, but they do not provide us anything. I don’t know how to get information about my rights. I don’t have any supporters in my life. The poor people are always overwhelmed in Afghanistan. The government never thinks about us.
Fifteen years ago one of our relatives lost her three sons in the war. Her husband is still missing and her brother also died. The family still faces sadness and many problems and they have financial problems.
It is true that our lives and future are destroyed but we don’t want this situation to continue in our children’s lives. We want a bright future and a life for our children. We want them to be educated.
Human rights do not provide equal rights for boys and girls. They say that the rights of women and men are equal, but this is only a slogan. They do not put it in practice.
We want to fight to take our rights. We don’t want to be silent. Rights should be equal. Women and girls should go to school and be educated. If girls are educated, they can get information about their rights and be able to defend their rights.
By Maliha as told to Humaira
Photo: Canada in Afghanistan/Zakarya Gulistani
Dear Humaira,
Thank you for helping Maliha voice her opinions. I like how her angry voice comes through in your writing. I agree with Maliha that education is the hope for Afghanistan’s next generation. Girls need to be educated to defend their rights, to show the men around them that they are valuable, and to be able to have jobs and earn money. I am sad that the Human Rights Commission in Kabul is useless to women like Maliha. I hope someone from the commission reads your oral story! Suzanne