Shahnaz
شهناز
(CANADA)
“I’m not going to give up at all. I’m not here to give up. I’m here to continue my life as strong as possible. And I will make it. And I am sure.”
Shahnaz is an elite Wushu athlete and soccer player. She is a strong, dedicated, and accomplished athlete who performed before large and diverse audiences throughout Afghanistan. She is a product of the 20 years of hard-fought gains in Afghanistan that one cannot avoid.
Q1: What is a single memory or story you remember from Afghanistan?
I have lots of memories about my, my past, my country. And one of them, like, one of the memories that I can’t forget, is the day that I was in the school, not in the school, but in a course where I was studying Chinese.
And then once, me, I heard a long sound. And it was from a suicide bombing that was in the cultural Danish educational center. It was near to my father, where my father was working. And I can't forget that day.
Shahnaz with her parents, both physicians.
It was horrible. I went, I went to, when I wanted I wanted to go home, there were all the ways were closed. And I couldn't go to my home. And everyone was, like, crying and I don't know.
It was horrible. I can’t forget that day. That was, I can't even imagine it again. It was scary.
Shahnaz performs in front of a packed auditorium in Kabul.
Q2: Tell us the exact moment you decided to leave Afghanistan.
On August 15, I had a test in my school and we were coming home with my friends and I remember that day. I didn't even say goodbye to my friends and I couldn't see them anymore. I left everyone without anything, without saying any goodbye and without anything. They couldn't even know that, they did not even know that I'm leaving the country.
And there was like lots of bad things. We went to Mazar, went into lots of places full of Taliban. Everywhere. Everywhere was full of Taliban. And they were following us everywhere we were going. And the horrible thing is that when I went to Pakistan, when we were in the border of the Pakistan and when we successfully get to Pakistan, I was looking to my country and I was like crying. And then I was looking to my country is like, okay, I'll never see you again. And I was hoping that one day I could come back to Afghanistan and see my friends, see my relatives.
And the day that I left Afghanistan was on 16 September, I guess. And I'll never forget that day. I'll never forget the situations that I've been through. And I hope everyone who have been through that situation feels good now and that’s it.
Q3: What is something important that you brought with you? Or what is something you wanted to bring but could not?
Um. Everything else you can find here. But I can't find, like, the past memories again. Like my friends. I wish I could save them all. I know that they're in Afghanistan and they're not safe. I'm not thinking about everything else that I have because if there’s something that, we can find it here, too.
But I wish I could save my friends. My relatives are every Afghan, every Afghan girl or whatever. I don't want them to go through this bas situation. I want I mean, I imagine my friends in Afghanistan in that bad situation, I can't I can't control myself not to cry.
It's, it's so bad. I'm, I'm talking, when I talk to my friends and they're like, I can't, we can't go to school and there's nothing to do. And then they're talking about the Taliban: Oh, really, I see the people who are dying there. That's horrible. That's too bad.
Shahnaz poses for a photo after her performace.
Attending wushu practice.
Receiving an award for her performance.
A window into wushu practice in Kabul.
Shahnaz's peers watching her practice.
Q4: If you could send a message that will be heard in thrity years, what would it be?
My experience, if someone read my story or if I could just say one thing, I would just say this one thing for them: Be strong. You don't need anyone in your life, even if there is no one to support you. Still God is with you, you have yourself.
“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.”