Farah’s Story

Hello, my name is Farah.*

I’m an Afghan girl. I had just been accepted to university to study engineering. I have worked hard to succeed. And whenever I went to university, I felt proud, and I wished that one day I could participate in an international organization as a representative of the youth of my country and be proud of my country. I never thought about marriage. I am the only girl in the family. My studies were going very well and I had a lot of success. I was able to be the first student in the university exams. But all this success and progress ended on August 16. Everything fell apart because my mother and father had worked in foreign institutions and with the German government, and we were very scared.

My mother and father had been threatened by the Taliban many times and even my father had been beaten. We came to Kabul but they were looking for us here too, and my mother and father decided to marry me to my cousin. I had not seen or known my cousin yet, my cousin is in France.He  is older than me. I do not like to marry him at all because I do not like him, but my family has forced me to marry him. It is very painful, forcing many of the girls I know to marry because they do not want to be married to Taliban. And they are marrying people who are both strangers and older than them.

You may understand better than all the girls in the world how hard it is for us Afghan girls to lose everything in one day. Believe me, we are very tired, this feeling is very painful. Sometimes I want to commit suicide to get rid of everything. Please pray for Afghan girls, especially for me, I hope that a miracle will happen and I will get rid of this nightmare. Blessed are some girls who fled Afghanistan and left. I advise all the girls of the world to enjoy your lives and be happy because Afghan girl, you are not.

*Names have been changed.

Disclaimer: More to Her Story is a neutral platform and outlet for young women and girls around the world to share their stories, voices, ideas, and creativity. The views of the young women and girls who share do not necessarily reflect the views of More to Her Story.