Afghanistan's orphans lead the way to reconciliation
The Sunday selection from the Letter of James encourages us “to care for orphans and widows in their affliction.” Perhaps no nation has witnessed more affliction over the past decade that war-torn Afghanistan, but at least the nation’s orphanages offer glimmers of hope for this divided nation . . .
The Sunday selection from the Letter of James encourages us “to care for orphans and widows in their affliction.” Perhaps no nation has witnessed more affliction over the past decade that war-torn Afghanistan, but at least the nation’s orphanages offer glimmers of hope for this divided nation.
Afghanistan is full of villages and families that are bitterly split between the insurgency and the government. Eleven years into the war, efforts to bring the country together through a nationwide reconciliation process have yielded little. But when men die in Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold, it doesn’t matter whether they’re soldiers, civilians, or insurgents. Their sons are taken to the same smattering of drab buildings and assigned to the same dorm rooms at Sheikh Zayed Orphanage.
Many of their mothers are alive, but women in southern Afghanistan are often incapable of independently providing for their children, and with extended families decimated by the war, an orphanage is often the only alternative.
Hamidullah, 12, and Rahmatullah, 10, are orphans profiled in a report that notes their similarities: the same haircuts, the same blue uniforms, the same jokes, the same notebooks with sailboats and convertibles on the cover. When they get older, they want to be neighbors.
They arrived here—bunkmates in southern Afghanistan’s largest orphanage—under the same tragic circumstances, noted the report. Just one detail separates the best friends: Their fathers were killed fighting on opposite sides of the war.
Rahmatullah’s father was killed by the Taliban. Hamidullah’s father was killed fighting for the Taliban. In the ethnic Pashtun heartland, where vengeance and pride so often dictate action, Rahmatullah and Hamidullah might have been expected to inherit their fathers’ allegiances. Instead, they started fresh, embracing each other.
“No matter what their fathers did, they are friends,” said Sayyid Abdullah Hashemi, the director of Afghanistan’s orphanages. “Our goal for the country is to have the same attitude as the orphans.
Afghanistan is full of villages and families that are bitterly split between the insurgency and the government. Eleven years into the war, efforts to bring the country together through a nationwide reconciliation process have yielded little. But when men die in Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold, it doesn’t matter whether they’re soldiers, civilians, or insurgents. Their sons are taken to the same smattering of drab buildings and assigned to the same dorm rooms at Sheikh Zayed Orphanage.
Many of their mothers are alive, but women in southern Afghanistan are often incapable of independently providing for their children, and with extended families decimated by the war, an orphanage is often the only alternative.
Hamidullah, 12, and Rahmatullah, 10, are orphans profiled in a report that notes their similarities: the same haircuts, the same blue uniforms, the same jokes, the same notebooks with sailboats and convertibles on the cover. When they get older, they want to be neighbors.
They arrived here—bunkmates in southern Afghanistan’s largest orphanage—under the same tragic circumstances, noted the report. Just one detail separates the best friends: Their fathers were killed fighting on opposite sides of the war.
Rahmatullah’s father was killed by the Taliban. Hamidullah’s father was killed fighting for the Taliban. In the ethnic Pashtun heartland, where vengeance and pride so often dictate action, Rahmatullah and Hamidullah might have been expected to inherit their fathers’ allegiances. Instead, they started fresh, embracing each other.
“No matter what their fathers did, they are friends,” said Sayyid Abdullah Hashemi, the director of Afghanistan’s orphanages. “Our goal for the country is to have the same attitude as the orphans.
Source: An article by Kevin Sieff for the Washington Post