The heat had reached a point where it was almost unbearable but Nooriyah still attended to her father's wounded leg. Her father, Mohd. Ali had been caught in a tussle with one of the Taliban who patrolled the area around their house after dark. Mohd Ali had been seen outside his house after curfew hours. So the Taliban struck him with their always-at-hand rifles. Since Monday, Nooriyah had been trying to nurse him back to health. It was Thursday now.
Their small house in Kabul, Afghanistan, now reeked with the smell of the sick. Aaman, Nooriyah's 11 year old brother having been in a fight with his few friends, ran in and started towards the small alcove that was their toilet. He had a bleeding upper lip and nose. When Nooriyah swooped in to examine him, he shoved her away roughly and went to wash up and find a scrap piece of cloth to wipe his face with. Sighing heavily, Nooriyah went back to her father. As she was wiping the sweat off his forehead, he asked her in a very weak voice: "What trouble has Aaman been up to today?” Nooriyah wondered how he had known because when she'd left his side he had been dozing fitfully. Putting her thoughts aside she answered: "He has been in another fight with those rowdy friends of his, a little blood but not much" she didn't want to scare him, though he would probably be down with fever for the next few days because he was very fragile boy," I'm going to tell him off again!" He patted her arm and said "Oh, my dear, dear daughter! What would I do without you? The scolding and telling off is my part!" He managed a ghost of a smile. Nooriyah sniffed indignantly but then rushed at her father and hugged him, hard, a bit too hard she thought after he began wheezing, weakly under her. His condition had been a bit more stable after he had begun taking the medicines the local pharmacist had prescribed for them.
Theirs was a pretty well to do estate compared to all the other houses in their small neighbourhood where everyone had grown up knowing what was going on in the next house. All the families on the block had very close knit ties with each other. That whole neighbourhood spirit was gone now that the Taliban night patrols and curfew had been more strongly enforced. You could no longer see kids playing along the sidewalks during their free evenings. Or people visiting each other for tea and stopping by for a chat. Even the few local co-ed schools had been shut down after the Taliban passed the law that all education and entertainment were Haram; meaning not allowed and against their religion .They had spray-painted all the billboards that portrayed any females advertising products and they ordered everyone to put up black paper on the windows of their houses so no-one could look in, or look out for that matter. At first Mohd. Ali had resisted this and a few other rules. His decision was later regretted when the Taliban barged through their door and demanded why they had not covered up their windows. That visit made them change a lot: the windows, all their books and paintings were confiscated and burnt; their television set was thrown and broken out-side their house and all of Nooriyah and Aaman's childhood toys were taken away. The Taliban called themselves 'mujahedeen' ("holy warriors" or "freedom fighters"). They were the results of extreme Islamic preaching with the wrong messages being drilled into them since they were young. So one couldn't really blame them for their actions but all humans should have some sense! They were promised Heaven if they performed suicide bombings and that treating people of other religions as if they would go to Hell and burn was the way they were meant to live. But the moderate Muslims knew better than that. They protested but breaking through completely was nearly impossible because in the name of religion the Taliban had taken up arms and ammunition as their tool of force for bending the strong-willed Afghani people to do what they wanted them to. So the couple of groups that had arisen to protest the Taliban 'invasion' ,if that's what we can call it, had to stay very secretive and maintain a low-profile so not to attract any unwanted attention(Taliban related) which would land them in a spot of trouble. Then as the Taliban rampage continued and increased in its masses people protested more openly than ever before.
Where only my thoughts have been
Take me to the moon
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Nooriyah's Struggle
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