Why Afghan women are leaving Afghanistan

As the world celebrates women’s rights, Afghan women are losing hope they will regain theirs.

It was 4:15am when I arrived at the gate of the passport office. The weather was cold and it was still dark.

There was already a line of women who had come before me. Some were sleeping under a blanket, others were just sitting or standing. I stood in the line and asked one woman how long she had been waiting for. She told me she and her family members had arrived at 1am.

I could understand why they had come that early. I had heard that it would get very crowded at the passport office and if you do not come early, you would be at the end of the line.

Soon another family joined the line behind me: a mother with three girls. We started chatting. The mother, Zarghona, told me her three daughters could not go to school any more after the Taliban ban on secondary education for girls. The eldest was supposed to be in grade 12, the middle one – in grade 10 and the youngest – in grade seven.

The mother told me that they were trying to leave Afghanistan for another country where her daughters could get an education. She told me that they had initially planned to go to Pakistan but after the Pakistani authorities started to expel Afghan refugees, they decided to go to Iran.

She was a kind and outgoing woman; she even invited me to join her and her daughters under their blanket to stay warm.

As dawn began to break, I started to see the faces of the women who were gathering in the long line. I could see many different women: school teachers and university professors, rich and poor, young and old.

As we waited, it started to rain.

At 8:30am, the passport office employees arrived which immediately triggered a commotion. All of a sudden,