Sakina: My husband was imprisoned last year. To follow his case, I had to go to each and every government offices. I was not making any progress with his case due to the bureaucracy. When the case was referred to the Attorney General Office, everything changed. One of the attorneys who was a bad tempered man suddenly changed his behavior as soon as he saw me. He called me to his office several times and finally he spoke his mind, turning to me he said that he wanted me to be with him just once if I was to proceed with my husband’s case.
Muzhgan: I was new in Kabul and was not familiar with the social environment in the capital city. I was looking for a job. My son was two and half years old. I would take my child to the kindergarten every day.
One day, when I wanted to pick up my child, there was nearly a 45 years old man in the office of the kindergarten. He said hello to me and soon started a conversation. He told me that he was establishing a cultural association and complimented my potential and asked me to work with him.
As I was tired of being unemployed, I accepted the job offer. We would hold sessions with parliamentarians and other associations. One day, when we were returning from a session he told me that he would take me to Polytechnic University to work there with a monthly salary of afn 15,000.
He said to me that he would take me there if I was kind enough to him. Shocked by his words, I asked him to clear what he meant. He said that he wanted me to ‘love’ him. I was surprised and asked him whether he knew that I was married. He said that it didn’t matter, ‘I love you and I don’t want to lose you’.
His words made me very uncomfortable and I told him that I neither want the job nor you. I got off the car and I told myself that how a human being can be this evil and immoral. I was shocked by his words for days.
Shogofa: It was my second year at the journalism faculty. I was looking for a job to solve my economic problems. One day, one of my friends introduced me to an organization. The initial interview was with an advisor there, which I passed. The next day, I was employed. The advisor at the organization started bothering me on the first day of my job. He continued to call me and text me all day. He even sent me sexually explicit clips. The next day, I went to his office and asked him to make it clear why he sent me such dirty texts and clips. He acted as if he heard nothing and ignored my question. He finally told me that he could provide me with everything possible like money, a house and a car in return for spending “a day with him”. As he was talking to me, he was approaching me. I was scared and angry by his rude behavior and found my way out and never returned to the office again.
