The girls

"I didn't fit in the world of teenagers. I thought that after 10 years of my activity, I had found my place in the environment. After teaching teenagers and children who were left behind in those years when there was no news of Afghan children going to school, I thought I had made my decision and was going to work on empowering women for the rest of my life. But something seemed to be missing, as if these women and I had lost our childhood world. They were looking for their childhood and I was looking for my lost certainty.

Our plan was for a summer class for teenage girls, and that was it. We read a (little black fish*) together, each of us became a little black fish and thought about which stream we would go to the sea from and how eager we were to see our own world's sea. We talked about our wishes and they wrote for me, "They want to help children like themselves in the future." The little girl wrote, "My wish is that no child will be left out of school for money," and the other wrote, "No one should be insulted for being Afghan in school."

We experienced a bigger world together, we were excited to see the university and talked about concepts that may have been funny to us before. We talked about feelings and needs. I also took steps with them to learn to speak, express needs, and recognize their emotions.

"T" says, "This class gives energy to people, it's as if you give us life with your energy." I tell her and her friends that when I wake up in the morning, I put my hand on my phone to cancel the class, because I'm not feeling well these days and I have little energy. I tell them that I am also a different person in these few hours a week, a better person.

The summer term ended and our plan was extended for another 3 months. Now working has become sweet for me; those 4 hours a week have made me talk and consult with many friends, learn an hour of my day, and be careful about the impact of every word I say on the girls, and I think the late 30s is a good time to say: If all I have done in life is to make a girl believe in a corner of this city that she can and fight with all her being for this "belief" and proudly talk about her achievements, then I have paid my rent on this planet. Now I say with a louder voice that I am the voice of these girls and women because they are my lost certainty, the little black fish that have taken steps on the way."

*The Little Black Fish is an Iranian book about a fish that wants to go to the sea to explore the world.

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