AFGHANISTAN TORTURED FAMILY SAGA, PART I

 Five years ago a young woman whom I will call S-1 lived a reasonably contented life- as contented as possible for a middle class Afghan family enduring the on-gong conflicts in that ancient country. The father ran a business including a money-exchange component. The mother was an active supporter of women’s rights. The children of school age were attending school. And that is where the trouble started.

One day as S-1 was coming home from school she was stopped by the Taliban. “Who is sending you to school?” they demanded. She told the truth: “My Father.” The response “Tell him he must stop doing that immediately!  In this country girls do not go to school!”  

After about a week S-1 was again stopped on the way home from school. This time it got even more serious. The Taliban discovered that she was not only going to school she was learning English. The next day her father disappeared. It was soon obvious that he had suffered the same fate as his eldest son who had previously disappeared. Both Father and Son were murdered by the Taliban. When the Mother heard this distressing news she suffered a heart attack and died.

The remaining 7 family members, all under 20 years of age tried to manage. Then a government agent arrived at their home with information provided by the USA forces. The threat was clear. “You, S-1, are next on the list for extermination by the Taliban. Escape at once. ”The entire family scrambled out of their home in the middle of the night making their way to a neighbor some distance away. The escape was in the dark and hurried and in the process a younger sister fell and broke her leg.

Someone related to the USA again arrived -this time with one tickets on a flight to the USA. S-1 was given the strong advice to flee for her life, get on the next flight and find freedom in the USA. S-1 arrived in Washington DC.

Meanwhile back in Afghanistan the nearby family was helpful but only for so long. It was announced that their 6 siblings could stay, but there was one new condition. The youngest girl in the family was to become an added wife to one of the care providers. He was 65, the girl, 12! They refused. They decided to get what cash they could for all their goods, car, home, and other possessions. Every penny of the proceeds was given to an underground group that got the family safely out of Afghanistan into hiding in Pakistan. About this time our family was about to get connected.

(More in next blog).