This picture is hard; indifference is worse.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, says that Afghanistan is the worst place in the world to be a child. One in five children do not live past the age of five.
No one growing up in Afghanistan has ever known what it is like to live in a country at peace. Think about it.
Photo: Steve McCurry
There are alot of children in Afghanistan, but very little childhood. - Khaled Hosseni.
These words will forever haunt a part of my mind.
I was in Peshawar. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On the rooftop of my grandmother’s house. From where can see the mountains in the distance, hazy blue or cold brown. It was a beautiful evening and I was waiting for the sunset. There is this muezzin who calls out the adhan in this beautiful way. And then it happened. With maghrib [sunset], the summons to prayer.
How, is the question. How do they bring themselves to do this?
KABUL: The case of a tortured Afghan child bride whose treatment shocked the world has led to three members of her husband’s family being jailed for 10 years, an official said Saturday.
Sahar Gul, 15, who was burned and beaten and had her fingernails pulled out was found in the basement of her husband’s house last December in north-eastern Baghlan province, where she had been locked in a toilet for six months.
“The court sentenced her father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law each to 10 years in prison on Tuesday,” Afghanistan’s supreme court spokesman Abdul Wakil Omari told AFP.
discriminate
vb [dɪˈskrɪmɪˌneɪt]
to single out a particular person, group, etc., for special favour or, esp, disfavour, often because of a characteristic such as race, colour, sex, intelligence, etc.
The century is the 21st Century, bet you already knew that. But what fascinates me is that the things are the same; more or less. We have acquired new levels of hatred, bloodshed, greed and yeah, most importantly discrimination. With all knowledge and the progress in the world, we still are dark people living in the darker ages.
You see, as long as there is color, there will be rascim. As long as there will be men and women, there will be harrssment. There will be gender discrimination. There will be abuse. There will be blood. There will be loss. As long as there is life, there is this struggle to overcome the pain that comes with it.
And this struggle goes on till the time the world ends. So I guess, I wanted to say: soldier on, we must.
I was in the car, traveling last night. Submerged in the thoughts flooding my mind about this and that and life. It was maghrib and I hadn’t noticed until my eyes found three men on the grassy lawn of a roadside; praying. In the quiet sundown, three men, then bowing in the direction of the qibla. I realized the sunset, the time and the feeling. One of those things [those much needed reminders] that catch you offgaurd and overwhelm you with that that sense of belonging.
Khuda kay liye is ko band kar do. Apnay bhaiyon ka qatal-e-aam band karo.
[For God’s sake, stop this bloodshed and killings of your own brothers.]
This post can can not even remotely come close to the aching pain. The pain, the affected families of the soldiers go through, this very moment. The soldiers, who are buried under several layers of snow, in Saichen since the last weekend.
But I am still typing this to let know that we, a nation of 170 million, more or less, are thinking of you, the brave, fearless soldiers of our country who spend their life in the cause of men, of Allah. I want the soldiers to know that they are and always will be remembered. As in Urdu language, I would use say, they are javed[eternal] forever. A salute, I send your way. And a prayer that you are at peace, wherever you are.
May Allah save the affected soldiers and reward them. May Allah bless them. May Allah give the bereaved families patience and peace. May Allah give us hope.
You stand on the borders, away from home, into the night, never looking back. For people who you might never know or meet, for people who you owe nothing, for people, who you stand guard anyway out of your selfless heart to protect and defend only because these people are your country men and women. And you, shall never be forgotten or left unrewarded. And that, being a true promise.
Peace be with you.
Some insights on the incidents here.
Kashmir avalanche: Up to 135 feared dead on Siachen
Pakistan resumes search for 135 buried by avalanche
P.S. Please, pray.
Today, in the bus, I was reading what my friend wrote to me on the front page of a book she sent me all the way, about a thousand kilometers away. She wrote in quotes:
Your cold mornings are filled with the heartache about the fact that although we are not at ease in the world, it is all we have, that it is ours but that it is full of strife, so that all we can call our own is strife; but even that is better than nothing at all, isn’t it? And as you split frost-laced wood with numb hands, rejoice that your uncertainty is God’s wills and His grace toward you and that that is beautiful, and part of a greater certainty, as your own father always said in his sermons and to you at home. And as the axe bites into the wood, be comforted in the fact that the ache in your heart and the confusion in your soul means that you are still alive, still human, and still open to the beauty of the world, even though you have done nothing to deserve it.
-Tinkers by Paul Harding.
How about a smile now?
-
Nouman Ali Khan (via zuleikha)
This is something that needs to be said. It is not nice to be stared at. It is not nice, to be stared at, at all. No, no.
(Source: myreadings)
The Asia Cup final happened tonight. The green team, Team Pakistan, won - by mere 2 runs. I am a green team enthusiast, all the way. I am the one, who you’ll find on the benches with among those, who cheer on their team in the sun or the rain, in loss or victory. But tonight, I support Bangladesh.
What a comeback. I quietly applaud their efforts how they made their way up from the last world cup performance. Their team work and their team spirits are laudable. I salute you Team Bangladesh, you may have lost to Team Pakistan, but you have won the respect of a million more.
Tonight, here’s to Bangladesh.
The park fence I walked along on a friday with my brother. Wanderlust is calling.
I was looking for recitation of the Holy Koran with translation and I came across this link. So, I have downloaded all the surahs. I thought I would put the link up here for anyone who was, like me, searching for this. Peace.
