Why Must Sacrifices Be Made

Two and a half years after Rasheed threatened Laila and I that he would kill us, the Talibans arrive in Afghanistan. The Taliban were a group of young Pashtuns and many of which have grown up as refugees, with horrible living conditions like mine. They came in and followed a man named Mullah Omar, while Rasheed, still furious about how I and Laila tried running away, hope the Taliban “clean up this place”.

 He has even begun to rarely speak to us. We went out to greet the Taliban, as we walked many Afghans we passed seemed hopeful. We and the people of Kabul celebrated the arrival of the Taliban since they brought the long awaited end to the Massoud. One of the soul reasons that Rasheed really liked the Taliban’s arrival was thanks to their “showing” of Soviets who have disobeyed, while saying that punishment would come to those committing crimes against Islam. I went to sleep worried about what Rasheed would do.

We wakeup the next morning to a message received from the Taliban, stating laws that completely changed our lives. For example, men had to grow beards, wear turbans and women were basically put under house arrest. We were forbidden from leaving the house unaccompanied, we couldn’t show our faces, and speak before spoken to first. We couldn’t go to school and we were prohibited from working. The punishment for disobeying these laws was a beating. I already got many beatings so I was debating if its worth it to break any of these laws.

Laila shared the same feelings with me, while Rasheed told us that the rest of Afghanistan had been following these rules for the past couple of years, he was grateful they finally brought it to our territory. Laila told me about how she’s happy her father doesn’t have to see what the Taliban had already done to ruin our country. I heard from people talking that the Taliban had been on rampages, breaking, beating and even raiding cinemas. I wondered what happened with Jalil and his cinema.

Rasheed realized that Aziza’s eye colour doesn’t match his or Laila’s, so he threatens her saying that he can go to the Taliban if he suspects he’s not the father. Laila found out about a week and a half later that she was pregnant with his son. She wanted to abort the child since she realized she wouldn’t be able to love Rasheed’s son as much as she loves Aziza, but she couldn’t go through with the abortion, her battle with Rasheed didn’t include the innocent killing of the baby.

After being shifted hospitals on the day of her labour, the hospital is packed with women and families. I had some memories of the good days, and the sacrifices that a mother makes every day. I betrayed her, I betrayed Nana. Laila goes through with the cesarean section with NO anesthesia. But surprisingly she actually didn’t scream. I believed most of the screams were let out while she was locked up by Rasheed! Zalmai is born, he looks like Laila since he actually looks nice.

Throughout Laila's labour, I had revalations on how much Nana had put through for me. And on how much she sacrificed just so i can ruin it all in the end. I must now use everything she has shown me in order to save Laila and her children.

Mariam Kassab