Shahida, Sara and Asma

On the day when the Taliban came, me and my little sister were sitting in the park next to our house on the swings. We didn’t expect this to happen.

Shahida:

My father died before I was born. It wasn’t easy for my mother to keep strong and take care of us.

Our home was in Kabul, Afghanistan, and it was surrounded by all our friends and relatives and so much love.

I was studying music and I was mountaineering in a foreign organization.

I remember, when my elder brother became a teacher at the university, it was the best year of my life, the best year for my family. Just before the Taliban came.

The only good year I remember – and then there were bombs and rafale in our area. I lost too many friends.

After the Taliban came to Kabul I felt like my heart was broken and I had no future, no hope. But it will not be like this. I need to get back there and bring my country freedom and peace.

When I was leaving my mom’s house from where we said ourgoodbye, she told me: “You should be… you should go and be stronger. You should go and improve yourself and come back stronger. You should be successful, and you should have a good place to live, and you should improve, and then you can come. Because we want to build our country and make it a peaceful place and live there in freedom and peace and we will need you”.

Asma:

And my mom said when we were about to leave: “I raised you to be brave, I raised you to be successful in your life and go and achieve your goals, and do whatever you like to do, and be yourself, and don’t forget us, don’t forget your ancestry. You are my girl and you will be the best in the future and make us proud one day”.

Of course, I want to go back to my country, my home, and my room where I can sleep very comfortably and relaxed and I want to study so hard. That’s one of the things my mother really wants for us: to get a good education and to be a kind person.

I was studying Russian literature in Kabul, but it was only one semester.

Of course, because of the Taliban we girls cannot go to universities, cannot study. Girls can’t go to school and women can’t go to work or have a proper job. And that’s the real problem for the girls and women. And that’s why we left our country, me and my elder sister Sara, and our friend Shahida.

We are also athletes,climbers and mountaineers. Taliban don’t allow  girls to do sports either. We weren’t able to be ourselves in any way, and I’m not sure we were able to stay safe at all. Taliban were beating girls for riding a bicycle. Taliban were killing people, too.

Sara:

The new generation in Afghanistan is very motivated and educated so they will come back and fight, we will all go back and fight and take back our country.

I used to work in a private high school. I used to teach kids in kindergarten, and I used to teach arts, I know how to draw.

I was studying English literature and worked as an English teacher in Academic School. And I had so many dreams.

I was planning many trips to many places and visiting my own country’s mountains. I dreamed a lot that maybe I will go to Koh-e Baba.

The first thing I’m thinking here is how to know the society, how to engage ourselves with the society. And then my education is my priority and that’s what I have tried so hard back in Afghanistan.

Shahida:

When I went to Pakistan, we didn’t have any family house where we could stay and we spent three weeks, almost three weeks in a mosque and people were very helpful to us.

This photo of Shahida is taken in Kabul when it was a safe place to live and to create.

And I spent a few months in Islamabad to check my visa for Poland.

Shahida, Sara and Asma got to Qatar on their way to Poland.

This photo was taken in Qatar airport. Actually, the teddy bear Asma is keeping was a present of her best friend from Kabul and among all the necessary things, she took the bear all the way to Cracow.

But from Qatar Shahida had to get on the transit plane to Helsinki. She bought another ticket for Sara’s and Asma’s flight to Poland, with one more step.

This photo of Shahida is taken in Kabul, when it was a safe place to live.

Shahida:

The road was a little bit hard because I was alone and there was a mistake that first day, they got me a Schengen visa and then they closed it and gave me only a Polish visa.

And some police officer in Helsinki thought that it’s something wrong and they didn’t let meleave the airport.

Sara:

It was a new country, and I was afraid in a way like every person can be in a new environment. But also, I didn’t have any feelings.

Asma:

After the plane, we got on a train going to Cracow where we had a friend.

Sara:

When we got to Cracow, we were so exhausted, but we just put our bags and went to the Mountaineering festival on the Grunvald’s Rondo the same day.

Asma:

There also was Marina, the head of our Mountaineering team, and Łukasz, the mountain climber with us and we visited st. Mary Church (Mariacki kościoł) on the Main Square (Rynek Główny),the one with two towers and the legend about brothers. We also visited the underground museum there and saw the knife from that legend.

Asma and Sara got to Warsaw and waited for Shahida at the airport for a while. Then it appeared that Shahida was stuck and needed to go to Dubai. They were very worried about Shahida and didn’t know what will happen next.

Shahida:

I had to go back to Dubai and then directly to Poland.

It was like three days route in the end.

I felt so tired and afraid.

Finally, it was possible for Shahida to fly to Warsaw and then get to Cracow and meet her friends.

Shahida was willing to study music, but she had not practiced for a very long time, since everything with the Taliban started.

For now, she has no time or extra money to get private piano lessons, but she is playing sometimes at her friend’s place.