Name Calling in the Classroom

Written by: Abdullah Fazli

Lailoma, Shahperai, and Mahtab were close friends and classmates.

One day they in the break time, their classmate, Wazhma came and asked them to play volleyball with her. Mahtab was playing better than others. Meanwhile, when Mahtab hit the ball, the ball dropped in the stream. Mahtab went to take it back. Lailoma called her pygmy and asked her to bring the ball soon. The other girls laughed at Mahtab. Mahtab became angry and asked Lailoma that why she called her pygmy. Lailoma said that as she is so small, she always calls her pygmy. Mahtab wanted to fight with her but Shahperai and Wazhma did not let them fight. Wazhma blamed Lailoma for bad naming Mahtab. Lailoma also called Wazhma “black girl”.

The break time ended and they went back to their classroom.

Mahtab was a very intelligent student in her class and she was always getting the highest scores.

One day, Mahtab was writing the timetable of the exam on the board. A girl asked her to write the timetable on the upper side of the table but Mahtab could not. Lailoma called her pygmy again. Some girls laughed at her. Lailoma cried and left the class.

The exam days arrived. All the students were happy but Lailoma was very sad. Wazhma asked about her sadness. Lailoma said that she is afraid that she might fail in the exams. Wazhma asked her about the previous exams. Lailoma said that at that time, Mahtab was helping her in school lessons but now she is angry with her. Wazhma said that she could not help her either.

The exams ended. When the students got their result sheets, Mahtab had gotten the highest scores but Lailoma was failed in two subjects.