The life of hope

My name’s meaning is hope. Maybe, that’s why I had & have lots of dreams with hope in all negative circumstances. If a girl has a good life and becomes educated and successful, it’s normal. But if a girl in a traditional or fundamentalist society, in a country impacted by war, with lots of family problems, can reach her goals, then this girl is a role model for the whole young generation.

I opened my eyes as a refugee in the world and the first thing I saw in myself was a girl without a homeland. When I started school, instead of starting to learn, I faced rejections from the first day of my education. Despite all of these problems, I continued my education and had an A+ average for many years in my class. We came back to our country of Afghanistan after 13 years. Living in a foreign country for many years and then leaving it to settle in another country, even in your own land, is not an easy task. But we settled, even with all of the difficulties. I joined school once again in a very dangerous location of Kabul: Pol-e-Charkhi. This was the route that American and other foreign troops went through and many times, this way was the witness of terrible attacks.

Amongst all security problems, the other obstacles that I was facing at that time were my relatives’ extremist thoughts about a girl’s education. But with all of these negativities, I continued my educational pathway. When I graduated from school and took the entry test for university, I passed the exam by getting a high score of 312 and made my way towards law and political science.

Studying law and political science in a fundamentalist country like Afghanistan is not an easy job. But despite all objections, I once again resisted and continued my education at university. I learnt lots of things from that period which were not only related to my profession but about all of the fake relations which surrounded me. I became one of the most active students at the university and won many competitions.

If a person has support even from one person, her hard work’s journey becomes an interesting way of living. But, if you haven’t any support, then your pathway gives you pain most of the time and you can be heartbroken many times; similarly, just like this, I had no supporters to motivate me even in my most difficult and complicated times. I broke down many times, and was stuck in many difficulties, but I stood back up and stood back up again and again.

Many times, I was a witness of bomb blasts, but even with all of the dangerous conditions, I didn’t stop my education because, behind all of my struggles, there was a spiritual goal. My goal was to become a role model for the young generation of girls in my country, who experience the same conditions as me and cannot get permission to continue their education. I wanted to get my bachelor's degree and get a scholarship to Oxford University to complete my master's and PhD, to show all Afghan girls that a girl without any support and with many problems can be a successful person.

On the first day of my fourth year of university on 2 November 2020, three gunmen stormed the campus of Kabul University and entered the classes where we were studying. I lost lots of my friends in that attack. More than 30 students were killed and 60 others wounded. I completely lost my mental health and couldn’t speak for 2 weeks.

After this brutal attack, I once again started my battle with all the tragedies of my life. I joined University once again and completed it with full enthusiasm. After my high qualification, I got a job at the Presidential Palace which was one of the most precious achievements towards my targeted goal.