Quran Should be in Our Heart!

 The result of first protest against Nato Soldiers in Kabul:

Some soldiers burned the Qoran,and, some Afghan people killed their compatriot and others wounded themselves in expressing their anger against these Americans. Thirty people were wounded and ten people were killed in this protest.  It means ten families lost their breadwinners forever, and the breadwinners of thirty families cannot work for a while.  This is a disaster for the families. 

This reminds me of the Saffeyen War between Moaviye and Imam Ali, peace be upon him.  A Division of Moaviye’s was losing. Most of his division had been killed, so Moaviye asked his assistant Amroas to find a solution that would make Ali, peace be upon him, make peace with them. 

Amroas said, “Go and ask your division to put the Qoran on the top of their spears and tell Ali’s Division that The Qoran is something we have in common. We follow the Qoran, so  if you are Muslims, you must stop the war out of respect for the Qoran. 

Imam Ali said, “Do not listen to them as this is a trick. They want to cheat you. I am Qoran Natigh, a Qoran that can speak with people.”

But the army of Ali stopped the fighting as soon as they saw Qorans on the top of the enemy spears. They returned to Ali and asked, “Can you not see the Qorans? Why do not you accept their invitation to peace we do not want to fight with them anymore. If you do not make peace with them, we will kill you.

The division of Ali made peace with Moaviye’s Army. But who is Ali that he introduces himself as a Qoran? Ali is a person who understands the meaning of Qoran deeply.  The Qoran is just paper if we do not try to understand it. The Qoran must be in our souls and minds not the pages of the Book.  Today I see the history of Islam being repeated. This is the reason for our misery.

Writen by: Narges Noori

                                                                                                                                                             

The Head of Big Bodhha!

The Head of Big Boddha!

The Biggest Deception:

Islam talks about justice and freedom for its followers. It talks about kindness and love. But when I read the Holy Quran and then compare it with the way some Muslims act, I find the Quran’s commandments are not often reflected in their actions. Islam focuses on peace, unity, humanity, kindness and justice. But many Muslims are betraying themselves and others with their behaviour.

I want to describe the biggest deception.

In the Quran, Allah says marriage must not be done with force or in ignorance. Yet Afghan people often treat their daughters and sisters in many ways that go against this Islamic rule. Unfortunately some Muslims believe one thing and do another.

Afghan girls often get married at a young age, even at 10 years old, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the parents think if a young girl doesn’t marry, it can bring shame to the family so they send their girls to Khanaye bakht - - or Luckiness House -  as they believe they should.

Afghan people believe when a girl gets married and leaves her father’s house, she goes to her Luckiness House. Unfortunately, the luckiness house, which is her husband’s family’s house, can become a hell for the girl. She faces many new problems. For example, she may not know how to be a good bride or how to behave with her in-laws or be a good mother. Then her husband’s family might start to punish her physically and mentally. It is not unheard of that a mother- in -law will put the girl in a dark room without food.

Sometimes a husband will divorce the girl. This has very bad consequences. In some villages, when a girl divorces she will be stoned. In other cases, a divorced girl will stay in the home of her ex-husband’s family and work as servant until she dies because the people of the village will treat her even worse if she leaves the home.

Another deception takes place when families find themselves in a bad social situation. For example they might have enemies or be impoverished. To solve the problems they decide to marry off  their girls, even if it is to men they don’t know or who are old enough to be the daughter’s father or grandfather.

The girl's parents assume she is happy and safe in the luckiness house,  when in fact, they forced her to marry only to decrease the dangers and risks from their enemies. Now they no longer have a young daughter to be kidnapped. She cannot tell them that she is unhappy or in danger, because she has no choice but to be married.

The families also will benefit from getting paid. They take Toyana - money from the grooms before the wedding - and additional payments for things like  the weeklong wedding party, which  requires expensive clothing.

Another deceptive practice is the way some parents of young girls marry their daughters to foreign grooms. The parents trust a matchmaker to choose a groom without knowing his background. The boy’s family makes promises and tells many lies to convince the girl’s family that she will have a good life or continue her education. The parents don’t listen to their daughter’s appeals; they force her to accept a wedding with the matchmaker’s chosen man.

It’s a frightening time for the girl. She forgets her dreams and worries about a dark future lying  ahead. But her relatives and family are happy thinking about how having a rich groom in the  fmaily will improve their social situation.

These kinds of marriages do not end well. Often girls are forced into running away and disappearing, or commiting suicide.

Sometimes a girl will steal money to leave the house or find someone who promises to take her to a safe place, but instead sells her to smugglers or a brothel. If this happens, the bride’s family and the groom’s family will become enemies. This leads to more problems. They might kidnap each other’s daughters, not as replacement brides but as bondwomen or prostitutes.

When this happens, people think badly of the girl’s family and penalize them and sometimes excommunicate them from society. People feel they can’t trust them anymore. The family can do nothing; regrets have no meaning.

This kind of treatment of our daughters is not what Islam teaches. Girls have the right to make decisions about their lives. But many parents think that it’s their right to decide. And forced marriages, are haram; they are legal.

Islam teaches  justice, freedom, fraternity, alliance, kindness, good behaviour and morality. It does not condone marriage by force or ignorance. Marriage must be based on kindness, agreement and love, the Holy Quran says. Muslims who treat girls and women this way have attached the wrong meaning to Islam. When families get a true Islamic education, abandon its harmful customs and respect all people, then society will be ready to fix this, the biggest deception.

By  Kamilah

Kabul Winter!

Kabul-Karte-Seh (02/03/2012)
K.A

Immigrant Afghan Students in Iran!

Everyone knows that during the Taliban regime education was banned for Afghan females and

limited for Afghan males. Since the Taliban, global attention has been concentrated on

education in Afghanistan. However, people have forgotten other students whose problems

have never been spoken about. I am a rare Afghan girl being one of the purposefully forgotten

students who was denied the ability to be a voice for my fellow Afghan students in Iran. I broke

an Afghan tradition of thousands of years and came to Afghanistan by myself to find my voice.

Every year the Iranian government made problems for Afghans registering at Iranian schools

at all levels, and the problems increased each year. For example, my family was required to pay

an amount of money that was not affordable for them into a government account and receive a

receipt because without that receipt I could not register at schools. Also I must endure a long

process in order to get registered at schools. This included filling out many different forms and

getting different signatures from governmental organizations that were located far away from

students' home towns. Getting signatures had its own difficulties like standing in long lines for

hours and facing the rude behavior of governmental clerks. Also, this process of the Afghan

students’ registration was started very late, and, as a result Afghan students like me registered

after fifteen days or one month into the school year. The most challenging problem was that I

did not know whether I could continue my education in the next year or not.

Discrimination continued for the Afghan students during the school year. I was not only

registered late, furthermore I was required to catch up with the class on my own, and the

Iranian teachers were not willing to help me. In my first year of high school, the government of

Iran prevented me from going to school for one month. After one month I could join the class,

but the math teacher did not accept any responsibility to help me, and then he asked me to get

out of his class. Like any other Afghan student, I was not allowed to take part in science clubs or

science competitions, nor could I choose my favorite major because of my Afghan nationality.

One of my brothers who was talented could not get admitted in to special schools for brilliant

students because Afghans were not accepted. Even our library cards mentioned our immigrant

status, and I could never understand what that policy was about.

Most of the Afghan students conceal their nationality among their Iranian friends because

they are afraid of their friends’ reaction. However I was the unusual Afghan girl because I have

never concealed my nationality.

For the reason of discrimination against Afghans I decided I must leave Iran.

After one year of discussion, I got permission from family to leave. My family believed that I

would be back soon, but I was sure I was not going back because there was no future for me in

Iran. Because the travel was by bus, I could only take what I could carry. On the other hand, I

wanted to take three things that were very important for me. The first one was my album that

has all my school year pictures. The photos remind me of the good things about those years.

The second one was my birthday postcard that my Iranian friend gave me. This was very

important to me to remember that all Iranian people are not against Afghans .And the third one

was my library card. It reminds me to never forget what Iranian government did to me and all

Afghans who were immigrants in Iran, to remember that I came to Afghanistan to find my voice

to help all immigrant Afghans.
Writen by: Narges Noori

Golden Dreams!

Today Afghan People are trying to move past a bad situation. Every day and everywhere they have explosions, attacks, murder, self-immolation, violence, rape and many kinds of crimes. Instead of finding any solution for that, many of Afghan People prefer to leave Afghanistan and immigrate to other countries. They hope to make a new life with lots of happiness for themselves and they just see golden dreams about their lives, but their dreams don’t come true, except for the few who have good luck. They think that when they leave our country, they will open a new window in their lives which will change their lives completely and bring happiness for them. So, every year from each house one or two persons goes abroad for an unknown destination.

·         Finding Money:

Many of Afghan people believe that if we leave Afghanistan we will find a better life or wealth, because they are tired of all of the wars, and insecurity. They accept every kind of risk and damages to leave Afghanistan even if they lose their lives. Many of them sell their fields, gardens, farms and houses for finding enough money. They don’t care that what will happen to their families and don’t pay attention to their parents and family’s appeals. Some of them work for three or four years for making money or borrow from wealthy people.

·         Waiting for Passport:

When they find enough money, at that time they go to Pakistan and they need Pakistani passports, because with Pakistani passport they can only go to Indonesia. So, for taking the passports they wait for a long time, sometimes they wait for one year. At that time they use half of their money in Pakistan for feeding themselves, passport and more money for smugglers. But, sometimes some of them can’t get even a Pakistani Passport. Most of these people want to go Australia and London because these two countries accept more Afghan immigration.

·         An Uncertain Journey:

Each groups get prepared for an uncertain journey. They try to find the smartest and most experienced smugglers who know about maps and every kind of danger. So they start their trip with lots of worries and apprehensions. They actually know how dangerous it is, but they accept it. But sometimes on the way they are arrested by police and returned back to Afghanistan. Those who arrive there (Indonesia), they stay some days in hiding places like destroyed houses or some hotels. Then they try to find smugglers to help them and find a ship that they can go by that until Australia and New Zealand. Finding smugglers is very difficult and expensive.

·         Water Storm:

All passengers want to start the trip early in the morning, before starting the storms begin. When the ship is leaving the beach, all the passengers start praying and they start their trip with lots of fear and apprehension. Each of them are waiting to hear if the Captain will inform them that the ship got a gap or crevice. It’s the worst news that frightens them a lot. After several hours they understand that the ship got a crevice and the water is entering the ship. It’s a tragedy scene for passengers that ends all of their dreams and wishes. There are some lucky people who have life jackets; it’s the only thing that gives them a little hope. So, they should pass the rest of the way, just by swimming. After several hours the rescue ship comes and rescues those who are alive and takes them to the immigration camp.

M. Husain: He is one of my relative who has many experiences while he immigrated to Pakistan, Iran, Greece and Australia. He was the passenger of a ship which got a gap during the trip. Fortunately he had a life jacket to rescue himself. He said, “I swam more than 12 hours when the rescue ship arrived and saved me. I was confused about where I was and where is this place? I was very tired; I couldn’t even talk for some hours. Then I understood that I was at the immigration camp. I stayed there for three months, at first I thought that I would be accepted in Australia but, when the boards came, they told me and my friends that we couldn’t live in Australia. When you don’t respect your life, how can you respect our rules? Then they sent us back to Afghanistan”.

·         Living in the Immigration Camp:

There are different people from many countries with different behaviours and manners. The people need to be more careful and take care of themselves. Sometimes they are fighting because of a small problem and badly hurt each other. There are some people who stayed in the camp for a long time, even for 10/12 years. Some of the people got psychological problems during these long years. Just those people who passed the interview are accepted in Australia. Many of them return to Afghanistan because they can’t convince them that they have a bad situation in Afghanistan. After all of these difficulties they have to accept this humiliation too.

·         The Effects of Returning:

1. When Afghan people are not accepted in foreign countries, it has a deep and negative effect on them. Even it leads to self-immolation, hara-kiri and other crimes. Sometimes they can be dangerous for people and society, because they lose their hope and can’t find their way. I saw some people who were positive people before, but the immigration made them negative members of society.

2. Sometimes it has a positive effect on them, because they understand the benefit of their motherland and the worth of their society and people. At that time they prefer to live in Afghanistan and make their lives here.

In conclusion, I would like to say that our golden dreams will come true when we stay and live and work in our motherland, even if it’s not a developing or progressive country. The immigrants who passed the bad situation, they understand that our motherland is our golden dream. I hope that the people know the worth of their motherland and never try to leave it. Then they won’t be humiliated. They are respected and valued in their own country.

Writen by: Kamilah Ataee