Afghan women are some of the most resourceful and strong women in the world: their resilience is unbreakable. But there has been a lot of work done, and every time we need to start over and over again from zero—and this is what is absolutely killing us. But we have to do what we have to do, and we are going to do it.Simply because they do not want us to exist does not mean that we will stop, because we do exist, and we are here. We are going to do anything in our power. And we have the world standing by us—the world has not given up on us. We are receiving help: UN Women is supporting me to run a centre in Kabul, for example. The Afghan women diaspora is helping; our women friends all around the world are helping.
The lives of Afghan women have changed 180 degrees. As the democracy for which we had worked so hard disappeared, so did the work that we did as Afghan women for our country disappearing at the same time. The women of Afghanistan went from existence—from being part of society, from working, from being part of every aspect of life as doctors, judges, nurses, engineers, women running offices—to nothing. Everything they had, even the most basic right to go to high school, was taken away from them. That to me is an indication that they do not want us to exist. Our brothers are not helping us; we are left alone and what is happening is that we are becoming extinct.
‘This too shall pass’
We are the hope, we are the power keeping Afghanistan together. The world should give us the respect that we really deserve. We are stretching our hands out and we ask you to help us.
Every single woman in Afghanistan is doing something extraordinary—just by staying alive, just feeding their family and by keeping their hope up that maybe, one day, things will be okay for them. I am impressed by every single Afghan woman: the ones who are inside the country, and the ones who are outside the country with their hearts broken, who are also crying day and night as their work, as everything they’ve built, and everything we’ve fought for, is dismantled day by day.There were times when the world has gone into dark and bad places, when we thought that the sun would never rise again. But nothing lasts forever—this I believe with all my heart. I am hopeful; I have to be. I have a lot of hope for a better Afghanistan, an Afghanistan which belongs to its people, to all of us.