Girl from Afghanistan

FOR OUR SISTERS DESERVING CHILDHOODS.

Acrylics and marker pen on watercolor paper. 18 x 24 inches.

Her life began under the Taliban. According to their rule of terror, a girl’s fate was sealed – no school, no choice, no dreams fulfilled. A woman’s role was to serve a man.

When her beloved Afghanistan began to endure America’s war Operation Enduring Freedom, most of her people’s hearts and minds were won when peace, prosperity and human rights were promised as the new law of the land.

But a war is a war is a war. Peacebuilding always limps behind even the best of strategies, and change is excruciatingly slow. Technically, girls could get educated now. Most of the country welcomed it, but the barely functioning school system was overwhelmed. Children’s classes were held in shifts, from morning until evening, and still only a fraction was accommodated. Even with attendance being free, most families could not afford the school uniforms, the books, and least of all their kids’ time away from working in the streets.

She was one of those children forced to spend her days selling chewing gum to foreign soldiers by the ISAF military base. Of course she yearned for more! Resourceful as she was, she enrolled in Skateistan, an international non-profit school that provides education and sports – skateboarding. In an instant, she could have an education and a hobby. This skating student gulped down every life-enhancing opportunity. Her light dispelled all traces of war as her eyes reflected her confidence of a peaceful future.

But in her now, there was war. She perished senselessly at 14 in a suicide bomb attack. Continue in peace, Khorshid.