Mina
(FRANCE)
“No one was involved in my decision to leave, but it was a very difficult decision. Leaving behind your career, reputation, family, and friends and going to a city where nothing is familiar — it takes a strong person to cope with all of this.”
مینا
Photo courtesy of Jim Huylebroek
Mina was born and educated in Afghanistan and holds a B.A. in Business Administration. In November 2017, she opened the Simple Café coffee shop in Kabul, maintaining her strong belief that a café is a place that provides space for diverse voices. It became a place where students, artists, teachers and people of different backgrounds gathered and freely exchanged their views. Importantly, her café became that safe venue where young people in particular would gather and organize community activities. On August 15, 2021, she had to close Simple Café. Instead of opening the doors to her business that day, she went to the French embassy in Kabul where she waited for evacuation to France. Seeing what has been happening to women in Afghanistan, she feels an obligation and a commitment to fight for a free Afghanistan and for freedom for women.
Q1: What is a single memory or story you remember from Afghanistan?
When I consider what connects me to Afghanistan, I always think of deep sorrow, terrible events, but also the hope that emerged out of these events. We’ve had good days, but the suicide bombings in Dehmazang Square in Kabul in 2016 and the murder of Farkhunda Malikzada in 2015 will always remain in my mind.
I still suffer from the pain I endured in the days after the Dehmazang incident. We had hope, despite all our difficulties. We went into the streets to protest for our civil rights. It was a strange day. Everyone came with hope for the demonstration and hope that the protest might be answered, but it was answered with an explosion. I had left the demonstration to eat, and when I came back, I saw a street full of blood with torn bodies. People who had lost their friends and family — everything at the same time — were watching in shock from the corners. The people who had been standing next to me to protest — now ninety of their bodies lie in a graveyard, and dozens of other people sustained injuries. I did not dare to visit the graves for several years.
When I remember Afghanistan, I remember these days. I will never forget these horrific scenes.
Mina reacting to violence at a demonstration in Kabul.
Q2: Tell us the exact moment you decided to leave Afghanistan.
I think Afghanistan has always been caught in a cycle between bad and worse. There would be hope and then you would be disappointed. But I had no idea that Afghanistan would destroy me and all my power to struggle and fight.
The morning of the Taliban takeover, I left home and went to work as usual. I never imagined what would happen that afternoon. The image we had of the Taliban in these years was of death and limitation.
It was very difficult for me to leave Afghanistan. Every time you would take action to achieve greater progress, you would fail. These failures affected us. The bombings in Dehmazang had a very bad effect on me, but I continued. I lived in Afghanistan for eighteen years total. It was constant effort, disappointment and effort. And suddenly, after twenty years out of power, the Taliban returned and turned all our dreams into nothing. I couldn’t imagine life under the rule of those who killed our friends, who took our peace and security and would never let us live comfortably.
No one was involved in my decision to leave. It was a very difficult decision. Leaving behind your career, fame, family, and friends and coming to a city where nothing is familiar — it takes a strong person to cope with all this. And escaping involved stepping on thousands of people who were trying to get out of Afghanistan. We stepped on all these people. Our survival cost us a lot. I feel uncomfortable thinking about the past and the events at the airport.
I feel guilty that I and many other people got out of Afghanistan. Maybe if we had remained and continued the fight, it would have been better. I don’t know how long it would take, because we have already fought so much and nothing has happened and maybe nothing would happen again, but we may never be at peace. Peace may never return to our lives. My family still lives there. This is a constant pain because I can’t forget what happened.
I come from a painful past. The pain may have waned at times — when we tried so hard to put the pieces back together — but then everything disappeared overnight. And now we have left everything behind.
Mina in a Harazagi dress admiring the Kabul landscape.
Q3: What is something important that you wanted to bring with you? Or what is something you wanted to bring but could not?
Many girls would come to my café and say, “We come here because you are the owner.” They would tell me, “You give us hope.” Any time I was in a bad situation, I thought about these girls and this gave me hope to persevere.
One day, I was sitting in the café and a girl gave me a Hazaragi scarf and said, “This is my mother’s scarf. In the worst situations, when I am very desperate, I come here, I drink tea, I smoke, and I see you and find motivation.” I brought this scarf with me because it has symbolic value for me; it represents fighting and standing strong.
I also brought a pen with me: In Dehmazang, after the explosion, I was standing on the road when I saw it. A bloody pen that may have fallen from someone who was killed or wounded. Within this pen is the story of a fight that cost the blood of ninety people.
I brought, too, photos of my parents when they were young. But there were many things that I wanted to bring but couldn’t. We must accept that there are many things that cannot be carried. There are a lot of things we must leave behind.
Mina posing for a portrait at the Simple Café, the small business she owned in Kabul.
Q4: If you could send a message that will be heard in thirty years, what would it be?
The stories of people — the stories of people’s struggles and the story of people’s survival — are very important. I would like these stories to be heard.
Living in Afghanistan was not easy. We fought fiercely for basic rights, such as education, wearing the clothing of our choice, and the ability to work. Our generation, all of us without exception, fought to get these. Behind this literate and accomplished generation is a long story of struggle. If today girls are protesting in the streets of Kabul, it is the result of a long struggle for which many people lost their lives — in schools, universities, and hospitals. I struggled to study, work, dress, and have the right to very small choices.
We lived in war. We have not had peace for twenty years. We grew up under the shadow of war and violence. All I can think about is explosions, suicide bombs, war, and hardship. These should not be forgotten. We have things from the past to understand what happened, but I don’t want the pain we suffered to be easily forgotten. These stories must be told and heard.
Mina participating in a protest in Kabul.
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بیشتر بدانید
Photo Credit: Jim Huylebroek
“I was thinking to myself, You have worked so hard for twelve years to reach where you are. You earned respect and a place for yourself, and now it’s all over.”