Women wait before the start of group activities and counseling sessions at a Women-Friendly Health Space (WFHS) run by CARE in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29, 2023. Photo: Elise Blanchard/CARE
Women wait before the start of group activities and counseling sessions at a Women-Friendly Health Space (WFHS) run by CARE in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29, 2023. Photo: Elise Blanchard/CARE
I was met with warm handshakes, smiles, and hugs. I knew I’d just entered a sacred space. What I didn’t know was how much these women would soon open up and share with me.
Here, at CARE Ghazni’s Womens Friendly Health space, women and girls receive psychosocial support, prenatal educational courses with midwives, and they learn the trade of tailoring.
Out of all these services, perhaps one of the most valuable things these women receive is the support of their fellow community members.
Since August 2021, women in Afghanistan have been stripped of many of the basic freedoms many of us outside the country take for granted.
Education? Banned past sixth grade.
Work? Banned for certain professions.
Beauty salons? Banned.
Parks? Banned.
Walking anywhere alone? Same.
Am I missing anything?
Surely, I am, because it’s an almost incomprehensible atmosphere of restriction and anger for Afghan women.
I listened as these women described the pain they felt after having their dreams taken away by circumstance, the pain that they felt after losing loved ones to violence, the pain they felt from losing loved ones to illness, and the bone-deep pain they felt after having taken their minds to those dark places of not knowing whether they wanted to live anymore, if this is what living would be like.
And with their sorrow, these women – some not even able to recognize themselves in the mirror – have been able to do what Afghan women have learned to do all too well in the past few years: turn their pain into something positive.
They’ve been able to take charge of their lives and begin again.
Here are just a few of their stories.
“My father got martyred in 2018, and it was a very dark time for me. Sometimes I wanted to kill myself, and I thought I was nothing. Because of that I got very depressed. When I came to the CARE WFHS Center, I learned how to manage my stress, my life, my time, and myself. The psychologists helped me so much. They changed my life. Sometimes, I wanted to kill myself, but now, with the help of this center, now I know about my life, about myself, now I know what my goals are.
As everyone knows Afghanistan is in a bad situation, especially for girls and women, and I want you to prepare online classes for girls, because we cannot study. We don’t have permission for education.
My doctor helped me a lot, and because of this, it is my goal that I become a doctor and a useful doctor for my people.”
“When I first came here, it was so emotional. This entire room was full of women crying. I came here because I have a lot of challenges in life. My brother was an employee for UNICEF for eight years. A few years ago, he was murdered. Just like that. One day he went to work. He left as usual, he was murdered, and to this day it’s a mystery.
My family has found no peace, no answers.
Because of this, my older brothers banned me from going to school. All of this led me into a deep depression. Then, one day, two of my girlfriends told me about CARE. After only four visits with the counsellor, my mental health and the thoughts in my mind, my ideas have changed. I can take part in so many things now, and I couldn’t have gotten through these dark days without the help of CARE.”
“I am a mother of four, with a bachelor’s degree. I had a successful career teaching at a private school. My family’s life was smooth. I supported my family and my husband through my work. When the ban against women came into place, I was no longer able to work. These extremely difficult economic problems caused me depression and anxiety. What made things even more difficult was the fact that my 13-year-old daughter was also banned from school and she too suffered from depression.
Thankfully, I found CARE and was able to get psychosocial counseling, which I participated in individually and with a group. I can say that my thoughts and my ideas about my life have changed. I am able to think positively now. I have also been taking part in the tailoring program here for the past five months, and this program has left me feeling so empowered. I was able to take home a tailoring kit and because of this, I can make three [to] four pairs of clothes a day and earn almost 600 AFS (US $8) a day to support my family. I do need more help, but for now, I am happy again.”
“I have learned a lot here – from youth awareness to child marriage and gender-based violence. I have been able to teach others with what I have learned here. Youth in our communities must be aware of what happens in child marriage. When a girl is young, underage and forced to marry, this can cause her many problems, one of which is pregnancy, and this can cause the girl to die. I’ve also really liked learning more about the role of women in society. Women make up half of the population. Women can make their own decisions and are able to understand their responsibilities, which helps them become decision-makers, and women are able to free themselves from depression.”
All of these brave women sought help and found CARE. They all began to learn how to cope with the unjust reality that they and all women in Afghanistan have found themselves in.
But for every story told here, there are thousands more untold throughout Afghanistan.
These are just a few of the stories of the courageous women of Afghanistan. These are the stories of the women who want nothing more than to live their lives just as any other human being living in this world; the stories of women who want nothing more than for the international community to think of them, to keep them in their thoughts, and to never forget that they exist.
These are their stories of perseverance, of survival, of strength, and peace.
You can help these women by sharing their stories and helping others feel like they too can have the courage to speak up. You can help by sharing these stories so people outside the country can learn what it’s like to live as a woman in Afghanistan today.
