Imprisoned by a slander, released by a bribe
Hosna was 17 years old when the Taliban took over the government in Afghanistan and closed the schools. She stayed at home for a year. Instead of getting happy and full of excitement when she turned 18, the end of childhood made her sad and bored. Night and day, she reminded her parents that she had turned 18 yet had not finished school. She nagged and cried so much that her parents travelled from the county to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif to find a solution for their only daughter.
In the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, religious schools and some calligraphy and painting courses were both active and public, but home schools were also secretly open. Hosna’s parents brought her belongings and books to their family house, which was in the centre of Mazar-e-Sharif and where one of Hosna’s aunts lived with her family without paying rent. After giving a lot of advice to Hosna’s aunt and her family, her parents returned to their farm and agriculture. Hosna went to a home school where she got access to secret English courses. She was happy.
In the alley where Hosna lived with her aunt’s family, men prayed five times and then stood in the middle of the alley with prayer beads in their hands while staring at or harassing girls and women passing by. Hosna attended the course twice a day and her travel to and from the house soon drew the attention of those men.
One of those indecent men, who was the age of Hosna’s father, would sexually harass her by gazing at her body and telling her to walk like a girl or a maiden and not like a man. Hosna never replied and quickly hid herself from the roving eyes of that leering man. One day when Hosna was returning home from the English course, the man held out a piece of paper to her and told her to call him. Hosna didn’t take the paper, instead slowly saying that he should be embarrassed and that he could be her father. Hosna was a free and ambitious bird who did not pay attention to the demands of that dirty old man. Then he used the Taliban to trap Hosna. The old man filed a complaint with the Taliban’s police, saying that a single girl lives near him in a house with stranger (non-mahram) man, and she leaves the house twice a day, wearing make-up with a styled hairdo and it is not at all known where she goes and what she does. He had accused Hosna of giving the women and girls of the neighborhood a bad name and asked the Taliban to question her.
Hosna was writing her English homework when a car stopped in front of the house and there was a loud bang on the door. Hosna’s uncle opened the door to a group of Taliban and their Ranger vehicle. He was frightened and confirmed Hosna lived in the house. The Taliban entered the house, searched all the rooms, and then threw the lonely girl on the back of the Ranger, and took her to the Taliban station.
After Hosna was in prison for a week, her family came from the county to Mazar-e-Sharif. By paying an exorbitant amount of one million afghani, they got their daughter freed from the dreaded Taliban prison. Then they sold their house and property and escaped to Pakistan. They didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to their relatives and their dastardly neighbours. The Taliban had warned them that if they were seen again in that area or the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, then they would imprison their whole family and cause even worse problems.
Hosna put on a blue chador and went to Pakistan with her parents to face more of life and its twists and turns.
The neighbors blamed that dirty man for the entire situation, but he kept saying, “You don’t know what dirt I cleaned from your alley and place.” The alley and the area had been cleared of the existence of a girl with a great soul and beautiful dreams, while filth like that unfortunate and dirty man runs rampant and makes abundant water flow to the roots of an oppressive patriarchal system.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees and writer. Mahsa Alma Begum is the pseudonym of a Zan Times journalist in Afghanistan.
