Ghazni and New Hopes

 

Written by:  Mohammad Anwar Ander

On 24 April 2018 I left Kabul at 6:00 AM for an official trip to Ghazni province.  Newly installed power pillars in Kabul - Ghazni roadsides created hopes in hearts of people but holes caused roadside mine explosions was distressful.   

After about 3 hours we arrived to Ghazni; the city had changed a lot most of the roads were asphalted and there were many nice hotels to stay. I reserved a room at one of those hotels.

The other day at early morning Education Department of Ghazni province helped us to go to Jahan Malika High School. School administration warmly welcomed us and they said that was the first time that media had come there to ask about students social and educational problems. I talked with some of girls about our programs.

Most of girls complained that boys harass them on way to school. Khalida said:

“he was harassing me every day, even sometimes I decided to leave school. One day I complained to my teacher and she talked with that guy and the problem was solved.”

On Friday I went to Sanai Park, the park was changed a lot. There I saw youths who were playing on the ground. A teenager named Nabiullah said: “every Friday youth come here to have fun.”

There I talked about bride dowry to some people. They said that in some places people has solved this problem themselves. Ehsanullah said:

“in the past, people paid up to 1,200,000 Afghanis as bride price in our village. Most people couldn’t pay that; one of our villagers is engaged for about 10 to 11 years and he has not married yet, some others migrate to foreign counties to earn money for bride price and on the way, some of them had lost their lives.

The elders in our village set together and they decided to reduce the amount of bride price. Now it is 300,000 Afghanis. They also decided to not procure dowry which was about 12 truck goods. Now for Henna Night just some elders and about 10 women go to bride’s house to perform the tradition and there is no dowry.”

Through this short trip I talked with tens of Afghan youths and I recorded their voice. After 4 days I got back to Kabul.