By: Azar Foladi
Translated by: Mohammad Sakhi Rezaie
It is not important for “Sima” whether she can sleep during the night or not because she has fixed her mind clock at 7 am, in order to wake up and then prepare the shoes and hat of her 9 years old son and sends him to school. The only thing that makes her happy is that her son’s school is close to her home. Mahdi goes to school in the morning and returns at 2 pm and Sima sits at the back of her sewing machine and puts the teapot and the cup near her hand and then starts working and listening to music; She sometimes takes a sip of tea and sometimes swallows her sorrows. When you listen to the story of her life, contrary to her artificial cheerfulness, she has a sad life full of sorrows.
It was the spring of 2012. She was happy that had successfully passed the final high school exams and could study at university. She was the second child of a mid-class Hazara family who if could not study I a public university, she could study in a private university. She did not have economic problem and also there was no other barrier on her way; neither a cultural barrier or financial one. Her father was a well-known man and supported her to continue her study. So Sima joined the university, wearing a white uniform, she perceived herself as a doctor. But, it did not last much, and her hope were replaced with a big disappointment in her life.
In one of the nights which “the sky cursed”, Sima went behind the door of their guest room and counted the shoes her father’s guests. Haji usually had guests and Sima was in charge of the kitchen. When she came to the kitchen to cook dinner, her father came to her and told her that he had some Very important guests. Because they usually had guests. Her father usually did not come to the kitchen to tell what she shall cook and how it shall be cooked. Sima did not understand what her father mean but did her job in the best way she could do it. She sent full plates of rice and pot raost and they soon were sent her empty. After the gussets were satisfied, and tea was also sent to the them, Sima started cleaning the kitchen. Then, she went to her bedroom to sleep while she was too tired.
She had just slept, while her small sister kicked her saying “get up! Get up! Our father married you to someone.”
Sima could not believe it; But she listened to the story of her sister and what she had heard while she had been behind the door of the guest room. The she cried loudly. She was sad and she was angry at her father for not consulting her about her marriage and she cursed the unfamiliar guests. The guests were saying congratulations to each other. The Haji tried to justify his decision to his daughter who wanted to become a doctor. The more Haji tried to provide a good picture of the new guests and the groom, the more she was suspicious about them. As her father could not satisfy her, he beaten Sima in order not to oppose to his decision.
The first semester of medical faculty was not over, when she married with a young man who she did not know him. The only thing she could comfort her was what her father and mother told her; you would have a happy and prosperous life. The told her the groom came from a wealthy family and it was a big chance for Sima. In return, her husband told her that he will remain beside Sima forever, he will support Sima to study and help her at home. She did not know that her husband will not stand on his promise. When Sima married, everything changed. Sima wanted to become a doctor but her husband and his family wanted Sima to have child. As such, Sima had a child in the third semester and her dream to become a doctor vanished ever.
The to be doctor is helpless now; Her husband who worked in a pharmacy as a doctor was expelled from the university because of laziness and as a result he lost his job too. Nobody gave her husband a job because of being expelled from the university. Sima faced a lot of problems in a family she was supposed to be happy. When she talks of her dreams, while crying she says she grew up in prosperity at his father’s home. But she was not allowed to lock the door on herself in his husband’s house or to talk with her relatives, especially male ones. She was not allowed to invite her relatives to their home and her jobless husband was an extra burden on her. “I made bay diapers out of plastics for Mahdi, my little son.” She says.
Disappointed from everywhere, her husband decided to join the national army to have an income and mange his family. But Sima disagreed with him. Sima asked her father to send her husband to Saudi Arabia to work. Siam’s husband could reach Saudi Arabia after passing hardships in Pakistan. He worked in his father in law hotel as a baker and he gradually improved and had a good salary. But it did not impact positively on the life of Sima because she did not receive any money from her husband. After two years, her husband sent her 20,000 Afghanis; of course without informing his parents, but they finally were informed and were very angry at their son and their daughter in law. “She wants money separately! Does she want to open a bank account? She can’t do so until we are alive.” They said.
It was too difficult for Sima to live with her husband parents. As a result, she took her little son, without informing her husband’s family, she went to her father’s house to live with them. Her father said he had made a mistake marrying Sima to such a family and he encouraged his daughter to divorce. But she was a mother and could not leave her son alone. As a result, she waited for two or three years, while her husband was in Saudi Arabia. Her husband came from Saudi Arabia, and Sima went to his husband’s family to live with him. But they did not live them to have a peaceful life. They usually reminded the issue of 20,000 afs. Sima’s husband could not tolerate it and returned to Saudi Arabia after two months, although she had returned back from Saudi Arabia after five years. Sima could satisfy her husband’s family to live separately conditioned to that her husband work for her parents and his brother and sister. She started sewing embroidery and sewing she could make a good living; a life that her classmates hoped to have such a life. But it did not last. Afghanistan republic government collapsed and Taliban retook the control of the country and everyone was puzzled by these developments. Sima’s husband was expelled from Saudi Arabia due to fake identification documentations and returned to Afghanistan to live with his wife and son. He had a new plan. “To sell everything they had to go to Iran and from Iran to go to Brazil, US or maybe Canada. He behaved better after 10 years of mutual life.
Sima had no choice but to agree with her husband for the sake of her son. She was ready to take any risk in order their son lives in a prosperous country. They could hardly get passports after selling all their properties. Going in the hustle and bustle, her husband go to Kandahar to get passports and Sima had no news of her husband for two or three weeks. She calls several times her husband and he finally picks up the telephone. “I wore the trousers you bought me from Barch in my wedding! And I want to live with another woman but will not divorce you. You shall live alone unless your hair is as while as your teeth!” he says. Before doing anything, Sima rushed to check her suitcases. Her husband had taken her passport and their son’s passport, he had taken Sima’s jewelries, phone and any other valuable belongings they had. As the Taliban policies are against Afghan women, Sima could not file a complaint against her husband. Sima, asked what about your son? “I do not need him.” Her husband said. Saima’s husband went to Pakistan with his new wife and Sima went to his father’s house again. Sima left Afghanistan due to increasingly restricting policies of the Taliban on women. Now, she hopes to be accepted as migration in third country. Currently, she makes a living by sewing to feed his little son and herself.
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