Unfortunately, they shut down the Hadaf Tutoring Centre, Where I taught English last year. I remember vividly when the Afghan Taliban swept back to power and was taking its last breaths. The dog of poverty, as in the Talib breed, had become the centre’s hoof picker, with challenges appearing from everywhere.
The centre’s head said that the knife had reached the bone (I’ve reached the end of my tether); he did not know how to think about the continuation of the course.
One of the language learners was Tamanna (Alias), a girl with a thousand hopes in her heart and a thousand goals in her head. She was brave—bold as sunlight against the darkness of life. On the days when we had a topic and it was her turn, I listened carefully to her aspirations.
Now as she called me. She has become a disappointed girl, disappointed in the earth and the sky. Sadly, the situation under Taliban rule has paralysed her.
Now that Tamanna is talking, I swear to God, I can’t believe that she is in this state.
She says in a hoarse voice, “After you left the centre, I no longer had a passion for English.” No matter how hard I tried, I could not continue learning the language. Of course, the conditions of the centre were also ruined. The number of students was decreasing day by day. I also stopped learning the language. Listening to my girlfriend’s advice, she and I went to the painting class and enrolled. I was learning to paint until a month ago. Then the Taliban came and made the centre shut down. Their reason was not known at all.”
After the schools, the Taliban have also closed the educational centres one after the other under various pretexts. These centres were the last hope for Afghanistani girls. But in the end, they took this hope away from them.
I told Tamanna to tell me everything she could about her condition. Talking about painful feelings and sorrows accumulated in the soul is one treatment method.
“I have no feelings,” She says. “Only despair torments me. I’ve lost my motivation, and I no longer have the energy to do anything. My life is heavy. Every moment, I feel like they are ripping me out little by little. I don’t feel like doing anything.”
After hearing Tamanna’s words, I tried to motivate her. I told her that she should try to find online courses. She should not give up on the challenging life; Diamonds are diamonds due to their hard lives, losing their coal skin and revealing their brightness.
Tamanna decides: “Thank you, teacher. It’s good; I will try. But I feel very desperate. I can’t sleep at night, and I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning. I think we’ve fallen into a well. Trusting in God, I will start again. According to you, we should not surrender to tyrants. We must stand up. We have to try again and again. And let’s rise again!”
Mohammad Azar Azarman
