Follow Me It was the life most boys from my area were forced into; living in this region of Pakistan we are susceptible to these kinds of pressures. We did not have much choice in how we live our lives; either follow the leader or die. My mom and I moved here after my father was killed. He was a suicide bomber. Because he died for the cause and he was an obedient follower we were taken care of. Since I was the youngest of six boys the rest were already recruited and I haven’t seen them in years. Some of them dead or probably imprisoned. It had crossed my mind that I would come to the same cross road that everyone else had, but I did not like thinking about it. It was a death wish… I know that I am suppose to believe in this stuff, that dying for the cause will secure your spot in heaven. I would rather earn my place their by hard work than by sacrifice. I have been working in the yards of some of my elderly neighbors; the earth is dry and rough. We haven’t seen moisture in weeks; the air is a dead heat that stiffens you everywhere you move. I would love a cool place to go so maybe I could get rid of my lingering headache from the constant heat. We do not even have shade under trees because we have no trees in this small little crappy town. Ever since the split with India some fifty years ago all these little towns have not been taken care of in any shape or form. I was originally from Karachi but after my fathers death and our realization of the reality of our world we moved, hoping that maybe my life could be spared. I may only be nine years old but you learn a lot quickly when you become the man of the house. My cousins had received the highest of educations for people of this time and had moved to London, England to b... ... middle of paper ... ...irty minutes later my mom came home and found me hiding under my bed sobbing. She had already seen the body and could assume what had gone on. She wasn’t going to ask questions, she knew I fought for her. She also knew that this was the sort of reason she was waiting for to leave Pakistan. Mom immediately got my uncle on the phone to get the plans underway. We would have to leave within the next day. Any longer and we would be dead too. We won’t tell our families why we are leaving and know one will know we have gone until we are well on our flight to London. We will cross the boarder into Afghanistan, than be on the earliest flight to Istanbul than London. We will vanish from this life and never have to worry again. The image of Aaqib's eyes will haunt me forever, but I have to remember that it was he or I and that I will now get the life I have always dreamed of.
“[Her mother as well as] Soraya, thumb in mouth. Both were as still as a block of stone” (p.2) This simile describes the feeling and actions of Mahtab and her family in the truck to Pakistan, there is an essence of fear woven into this simile as they (Mahtab’s mother and the children) are “sentenced to silence” in fear of being caught or discovered.
In the article titled “Pashtana’s Lesson” by Beth Murphy, she records the story of a 15 year-old Afghani girl who has a fiery passion for acquiring knowledge and pursuing education, but old traditions oppress her devotion to study. Pashtana is in the 7th grade at an all girls school which has been rejected by the elders in their community, asked to be torn down, or turned into an all boys school. Her mother strongly enforces studies on her children because she never went to school herself and she doesn’t want her children to end up blind to things in the world like her. In order to support her mother and three younger siblings financially, Pashtana is being forced by her uncle and father to marry her first cousin which is not uncommon, the
What the audiences have to say about this tribute was very obvious. It is implied that whenever any piece of art is able to touch the audience on a personal level, it automatically becomes something out of this world, and is appreciated over ages. This is what happened with Khan’s “Enuff Misfortune”. People all over the world finally found a medium that could say their heart through his music, and Mahmood Khan became all the more favorite of many.
army to avenge the deaths of my family and to survive, but I've come to learn that if I am going
One day, my parents talked to my brothers and me about moving to United States. The idea upset me, and I started to think about my life in Mexico. Everything I knew—my friends, family, and school for the past twenty years—was going to change. My father left first to find a decent job, an apartment. It was a great idea because when we arrived to the United States, we didn’t have problems.
A violent environment and family reunification plays a vital role in driving children to abandon their home country, but crime, gang fears and hostility seem to be the strongest factors for children’s decision to emigrate. According to Elizabeth Kennedy. This is especially true for most young males, who have no other choice but to join vicious gangs, or leave their homes in hopes to find a job that allows them work half the day and focus on their education the other half in order to achieve a better opportunity of life. According to Sonia Nazario, “One in three children lists family reunification as the principal reason to depart home. Not surprisingly, over 90 % of the children she interviewed have a family member
...ry religious, it would seem, because he owns a huge copy of the Qur'an which he keeps safe in a fancy box covered in velvet. Atiq doesn't like his job, he doesn't feel that it is respectable, and the more he thinks about it the angrier he gets. He also feels that the war will never end. Atiq is losing health, sleep, and weight in this desolate environment. Kabul is even more depressing while he watches a young poor practice for his future by killing animals in the street. Atiq doesn't want to go home to face his sick wife and messy home. Atiq prays for his wife's death while looking for a remedy for her disease of the blood. He meets with Mirza Shah who tells him to divorce her. Atiq refuses, he speaks of her loss of family and the fact that she saved his life, but maybe he just loves her. Mirza has a bleak outlook on women, they are suspicious propery and slaves.
Born in a rich Afghani family as the only child, Amir was brought up by his father, a wealthy businessman and a philanthropist who had built up an orphanage. However, Amir didn't feel be loved by his father because his father was stringent and not appreciated Amir’s bashfulness character. Amir had a friend, Hassan - who is the son of Ali, the servant in his family. Amir not only played with Hassan but also envied him because Amir presumed that his father loved Hassan better than himself. One day, Amir was intercepted by the antagonist of the novel, Assef, because Amir and Hassan won the competition of flying a kite. Hassan passed by and saved Amir by shooting Assef’s face with his catapult. Thus, Hassan’s action enraged Assef and bred Assef’s revenge - Assef insulted Hassan in a remote alley. Amir witnessed the process but didn't stand out. Amir felt guilt of his behavior and, therefore, told his father that Hassan has stolen something in the house to fire Hassan. Although Amir’s father didn't believe Amir’s words but Hassan still left. A few years later, to escape for the war, Amir and his father left Afghan for America. Amir became a writer and married with Soraya, daughter of an Afghan officer, yet he still felt guilt of his offense about Hassan. One day, unfortunately, Amir heard that Hassan was killed by Assef and Hassan’s child, Sohrab, was captured. Told that Hassan was actually his brother, his father’s child with Ali’s wife, Amir decided to return Afghan to save Sohrab. Exper...
Ahmad was writing a paper for his English class from the morning. He was writing this paper because he wanted to get a good grade, so he could please his sponsor who was paying for his school. At the same time, Ahmad also hoped to make his parents proud of his grades, because they worked so hard to raise him. Besides, his parents also care for his life whiles he was growing up, so they deserve to see a good effort for him. Due to the fact that Ahmad did not eat anything from the morning and till the lunch time because he was writing his paper. When he returned from the school, he ordered a pizza to eat because he was so hungry that he thought he will die if he did not eat at that moment. Ahmad ordered the pizza so it can give him energy and power to complete his homework’s, because if he did not eat he will not be able to finish his works. He has a calculus homework due tomorrow, and that homework is difficult and needs time to be solved because Ahmad is not that good in math. Moreover, Ahmad realized that he still needed to learn about differentials before he could start his homework. Which he would probably have to work all the night long to finish this homework. Because he was tired and he also have works to be done, he needs to eat something, and the pizza was his choice.
Your days consist of walking, running, and shooting, but in these three years I have been thankful enough not experience a whole lot of shooting. I’ve tried to stay out of trouble and keep safe for Sammie and Faith’s sake. That is, until my last day over here. I was supposed to be out of Afghanistan in twenty-four hours, all I had to do is lead one final convoy through a village. Coincidentally it was the same village I had watched Tom Butler die in four years prior. A group of five soldiers and I were guarding the last humvee when we fell far behind the group. Segregated that’s when the insurgents say their opportunity. They threw two grenades at the vehicle and blowing it up. The heat felt from the flames of the wreckage were unbearable. I managed to get the five guys and myself into a small food store before the thirty plus insurgents came out of the surrounding buildings. I put a call in to base giving them the coordinates of where we were. The officer on the phone told me he couldn’t get someone out there for at least five minutes. Five minutes went by when I finally heard the sound of the chopper’s blade in the distance. As soon as they heard the helicopter, the insurgents started to close in on us. No one in my platoon would make it out alive if someone didn’t do something. I saw only one way out for the majority of us, and it didn’t end well for me. I grabbed my pen and paper from my pack and
I am here, my legs blocks of concrete my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away” (Hosseini 345). After life dealt him one of the worst hands imaginable, Amir couldn’t think of anything else to do besides fade away. Amir is left powerless, sitting in a waiting room preparing for the worst, then puts away his pride, laid out a “prayer rug”, faced what he thought was west and prayed. This action proves his honor as a man, able to make the most difficult decision of all, and leave the outcome up to someone else. Amir is completing the first portion of his journey to becoming a man and finally learning from his past mistakes, further improving himself as a
Mrs. Kandahari grew up in the dusty, rocky outskirts of Afghanistan. From being smuggled to Pakistan to catch a flight to America, to surviving through the war in her hometown, Mary and her family have been through it all. "My family never had a choice, the war was so brutal
Islamic leaders tend to care more about their values based on how they think a young women should act based on their customs and beliefs toward their religion that they completely forget about how the women may feel toward this. These bright young girls leaving their homes to travel to Syria to join Isis was no coincidence at all, having everything planned out and strategically organized for months. We had no idea that these girls would plan something as devious as this, not even their families. These young girls represent what the article calls “the face of a new, troubling phenomenon,” young girls succumbing to the allure of what Sasha Havlicek, the chief executive of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, labels a “jihadi, girl power subculture.” As we look to remember these three young girls we can reflect upon their actions and motivations for fleeing their country for Syria as we think abruptly to ourselves Why Isis? And why decide to run away so soon and not wait? But maybe the question we should be asking ourselves is to why not turn to Isis during times like this. On television and many social media websites we see broadcast and reports authorized by Isis intending to persuade young women especially to come to come to Syria help protect
The frontline documentary shows the rise of ISIS in Afghanistan and the extent ISIS militants are willing to go to recruit young jihads. ISIS is an INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM organization that uses VIOLENCE against citizens with different political ideologies than their own in order to intimidate or coerce them into accepting their goals or idea. The documentary takes place In the Kunar province and shows the effect ISIS has had on the people living in this area. The most senior commander in the village, Abu Rashid, a former member of the Taliban who defected and joined ISIS, shows the frontline correspondent around the village introducing him to many ISIS fighters and the young people they are recruiting. The film features children as young as three learning how to properly handle weapons and the STEREOTYPES of the western world as evil. With no government help, these areas taken over by ISIS are rendered helpless to their rules and regulation of the ISIS leaders. Many families were separated and forced to leave their homes in order to escape ISIS control. These families’ values of AUTONOMY are contradicted by the reality of ISIS. Speaking up for one’s self in an effort to gain autonomy would result I death. This documentary outlines the devastating effects ISIS has on Afghanistan and people stricken by ISIS rule.
...er-life. And that must have somehow influenced my decisions. Even though the religious part of this came to me only afterwards. At first many others and I thought that this ridiculous trial was an obvious hoax. Who would have thought that such a crime, which I was evidently not guilty of, be punished by the death penalty. I fooled with the court. They on the other hand were quite serious about it. In the last days, I realized that there was no way out. True I could have argued with the court and won. I could have escaped using the plan devised by my dear friends. But since there was a high-ranking leader who wanted me dead, it was going to happen no matter what. Furthermore, my governmental beliefs stand true in all situations; the law should be followed and that is all. There was not much I was willing to do. After some thinking, I decided to go along with the law, after all, I had lived a happy life. One that I was proud of living, no matter how unusual it may appear to others. I was an old man of seventy. I found and understood myself, and had achieved happiness and goodness. There was nothing more that I desired. I knew what was waiting for me after death and was ready for it.