Life in Afghanistan for a teacher and her students
Nargis teaches 4th-6th-grade language arts at Abdul Rahim Shaheed school in Dasht-e-Barchi. She explains that her students often miss school because they are afraid to leave their homes. Many of her students have lost family members to bombings
“My sister Nargis Turkmani was born and raised in Afghanistan. She has two boys and three girls and has been married for over 23 years. Nargis’s story is simple: Every day she works to make a better life for herself and her children.
“Nargis has witnessed both the good days and the bad days in Afghanistan. She remembers the good times she had with her friends and siblings when she was a teenager attending Sooria High School: “Walking to school was safe and shopping at the market was fun. We dressed however we wanted to until the war began.”
“The invasion of the Soviet army in 1979 was one of the first wars that broke Afghanistan into small pieces. Despite the war-torn environment, Nargis graduated from high school and attended Kabul University for two years. As the war continued, a lot of families fled Afghanistan and migrated to Iran, Pakistan, and India. Nargis’s father fled to Pakistan. Before leaving, he arranged a marriage for Nargis to his friend’s son and left her in Afghanistan as a newlywed. With eight other children to support, her father considered the marriage to be the safest choice for Nargis; young girls could get raped and killed if they didn’t have a strong support system…”
