KABUL (SW) – To document the ordeal of devastating school bombing in Kabul, I went to the ‘Hill of Chehel Dokhtaran’ (forty girls); the most remote point of the Dasht-e-Barchi area in the city.
Up at this monumental hilltop, many teenage girls are buried under the soil with all their hopes and aspirations for their eternal rest. The shattered school of Sayid al-Shuhada, however, stood tall despite the scars it sustained followed the brazen assault on Saturday. Its gates were generously open for young girls to enter and seek knowledge.
Many legends have been told about the ‘Hill of Chehel Dokhtaran’. Some say the forty girls who threw themselves from the top of this peak to save themselves from the savages in the dark past. The peak is now resting place for more teenage girls who were killed in cold blood by the beasts of current times.
In a small house nearby lives a traumatized family that buried their dearest daughter here two days back.
The 32-year-old mother Muneeza was grieving for her daughter, Aqila, who at such a small age would always care for the comfort of the entire family. The little girl, in addition to studying and always being the top in her class, was also supporting her father with making ends meet.
She was just 15, and would spent her free time weaving carpets.
The last of her half-finished rug was still visible in a corner of her home, waiting for her to return.
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Aqila’s mother said that they did not wake up for early breakfast in the holy month of fasting that tragic day and asked her daughter not to go to school, but keen to learn, Aqila refused her mother’s plea, and left for school to never return.
“Aqila was an obeying girl with her head always down. She would come home straight from school. On that day, since she had no breakfast before the fasting day, so I asked her to stay home, but she did not accept my request and it was the last time she left the home to never return”, sighed Muneeza.
Aqila was the eldest daughter of Muneeza and Mohammad Amin. With the money she earned from carpet weaving, Aqila provided school supplies and clothes for herself, her younger brothers and sisters.
On the day of the explosions at school, Mohammad Amin had gone to Khair Khana area for work. A friend called to inform him of the explosion. Before he reached home, his friends informed him that his daughter has not been found around the school.
Amin rushed to all the hospitals in the area to search for his girl among the dead and wounded. It was a moment of life and death for him. He was keeping hopes alive for his daughter’s wellbeing until he finally found the remains of his dear one wrapped in a white cloth.
With tears in his eyes, Amin told me he buried those remains with his own hands, as well as the blood-littered school bag of her sweet daughter. “I had rushed to the Imam-e-Zaman Hospital and to inquire about my daughter, they said there was no student brought there with the name of Aqila, I asked was there anyone anonymous brought for the site of the blasts, they said yes. When I saw the body, it was my daughter”, recalled Amin as his eyes filled with tears.
Amin said he left Bamyan for Kabul eight years ago, hoping to make a better living for his children. He works as laborer, but despite his meager income, he never wanted to hand over illiterate children to society.
Mohammad Amin and Muneeza have two other daughters and two younger sons. They were puzzled whether to send their children to school after this incident, a question that has remained unclear to hundreds of families in the Dasht-e-Barchi area.
ENDS
