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Background Information
Afghanistan 1990 - 1991
I was born in Afghanistan, Kabul in 1990, so my nationality is Afghan. When I turned one, we came to realise that Afghanistan wasn’t the best country for a family to live. We were very fortunate to leave before the Taliban’s took over Afghanistan in 1996. They banned television, music, and movies! Girls were not allowed to go to school. War is frightening. What most of us know about war we learned from movies. The few who have first hand experience of war generally don't talk about it, and the rest of us don't ask. We had to leave family and friends and our belongings in Kabul to make a better life for us else where. Most of my memorable childhood memories are from Pakistan even though blood, fear and war are mostly associated in this day and age when someone hears about Pakistan. My family and I lived in Pakistan for almost 9 years. People shared their food, invited me into their homes, led me up to their rooftops to fly beautiful kites and asked me to dance at their wedding receptions. They were the best nine years of my life, but as I grew older and more mature, I soon realised the danger and fear my community and quite frankly the whole country were living of a bomb attack or a tragic event. Still, fear is well and truly present in Afghanistan/Pakistan. And as the fear grows, protective walls around offices and residences in Kabul sprout and grow, too. Barbed wire, dazzling spotlights, armed guards: All kinds of security measures are on the increase.

Living in Afghanistan and Pakistan made it very difficult for my mother and my older sister because women in Middle East are treated very different and harshly. Violence against women was and still is happening everywhere in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is local and specific. It does not distinguish between class or race or age or locality. Rape happens in back alleys, hotel suites and college dorms. Women are beaten in thatched huts,...