stories from my students

M who's from a village outside Jalalabad, near the infamous Tora Bora, tells about living under the T. When a young man was verbally abusive to his mother the T taped a water pitcher to his chest for nine months signifying the length of time she carried him in the womb! Not quite what you'd expect from alleged woman-haters. Another time, an Indian Hindu traveling on the Jalalabad was stopped by the T and given the choice of being shot on the spot or converting and reciting some particular lines from the Koran. ""Ï don't know them but if you tell me what they are, I'll happily recite them and convert," the man pleaded. But the T guard didn't know them either so he told the man to be sure and learn them before the next time they met up.

Mo tells this story: He was living in Iran and a member of a radical Islamic student group. He had a mentor who was about five years older than Mo who was about 19 at the time. Mo revered and looked up to his mentor until one day the guy fell in love- with a girl who was flagrantly not devout. Mo was appalled that his mentor could betray the faith like that; he videotapoed him with the girl, brought the video to his mentor's father who disowned him; the girl eventually ditched him and he became addicted to drugs. Mo tells me this story with obvious pride that he has caught out this betrayer of the faith. Mo is one of the brightest best writers in his class.

Here's another story from M in his own words: Three in One, A Strange Trip
Last month the university was off for around 21 days because of the Swine Flu. Most of the students went to their villages including me. During the second week I received a message from one of my classmates that we would have English 115 class on 16th November to watch The Killing Field. I was very anxious because I was very far from Kabul. I tried to change the time, but I did not succeed.
It was confirmed that we would have a class at 1 pm on November 16th. Therefore, on November 16th at 8 am I started my trip from Jalalabad with my 8 year old brother to reach Kabul at 11 am so I would not be late for my class. I was unaware that something strange would happen during my trip.
It is very common that The Taliban suddenly appear and begin their guerrilla fighting. They usually target army and police, but sometimes oil tankers. After driving for 30 minutes from Jalalabad, I was in Darronta when I heard a big explosion and firing. I saw a big oil tanker was on fire. There was fighting between The Taliban and police for around 30 minutes. Police blocked the road, so we took another route. The new road was rough enough and it took us around two hours to reach the main road again. I thought that there would be no more The Taliban, but I was wrong.
After we had traveled for around 30 more minutes, we heard sounds of firing, yelling for help, shouting, screaming, explosions and horns. All of the vehicles were moving back at a very fast speed. We stopped our car to ask them what had happened, but nobody had time to even tell us. At last one person told me speaking very fast that there was fighting between The Taliban and police. When I tried to reverse my car, there was no space to do so. There were many cars in front and back of my car. A mountain was to the left and a river was to the right and there was no way to escape. Therefore, like other people I left my car and took my brother to escape. While I was running, a few rockets blasted on the mountain to our right. My young brother was afraid and shouting. We were in the Abresham Tangi for more than two hours in a hidden place. At last two helicopters came and The Taliban escaped. We made our way back to Kabul and drove very fast. While driving, I saw an oil tanker which was shot many times by The Taliban, but didn’t burn. I thought again that The Taliban must be finished and I am out of danger. I was both right and wrong. There was neither fighting nor The Taliban, but there was a heavy rainfall and a flood.
We were in the same canyon: to our right there was a huge river and a big mountain was on our left. We were driving very slowly when I saw another traffic jam. “What happened?” I asked. “Due to a heavy flood the road is blocked in two places. One here and a second one is right over there,” a friend told me and pointed to a road which was blocked. It took us more than two hours to clean the road. Eventually we reached to Kabul at 6 pm. A two and a half hour trip took us ten hours.
The government of Afghanistan and some foreign countries have tried to talk to moderate members of The Taliban to bring peace, security and stability to the country, but The Taliban usually say “The Taliban will not talk to the government of Afghanistan until the foreign forces leave Afghanistan. How can Afghan Government bring peace in Afghanistan when The Taliban do not accept their proposal? Meanwhile, President Obama plans to send more troops to Afghanistan while The Taliban leader Mullah Omar says that sending more troops to Afghanistan will not do any good. Will this kind of fighting be forever in Afghanistan?