From Afghanistan to California: an Afghan-American teen on fleeing the Taliban and her new life in the U.S.

• Author: Jumakhan, Nargees
• Position: VOICES

When I was 6 years old and about to enter first grade, the Taliban took control, of Mazari-Sharif, the city in Afghanistan where my family and I lived.

The next week I found out I was not allowed to attend school because I was a girl. In public, my mother and oldest sister, who was 13, were soon forced to wear a head-to-toe covering called a burqa.

We weren't allowed to go outside without a mate chaperone, and women's behavior was strictly monitored: I saw a woman being verbally abused for wearing high-heeled shoes, another being beaten for wearing nail polish. I even saw an accused prostitute being stoned to death. These images burn in my head.

The Taliban grabbed power in Afghanistan during the civil war that broke out when Soviet troops left in defeat in 1989, after a decade-long occupation.

For many Afghans life was turned upside down under the Taliban, who enforced their harsh interpretation of Shariah (Islamic Law), including severe restrictions for women.

For my own family, Taliban rule was especially difficult because we are Hazara, an ethnic minority that the Taliban are Pashtun) wanted to exterminate. My father, who had fought in an anti-Taliban group, was in particular danger. Every day the Taliban would come searching for him, and he would hide in a neighbor's house.

In 1999 my father fled the country to Turkmenistan, then in 2001 to America. The rest of us escaped to Pakistan, where I went to school for the first time, and became a top student.

ARRANGED MARRIAGE

I was 11 when we came to the U.S. to join my father in California, where he had found work as a mechanic. Because I was young, I quickly adapted to my new life, but that created its own problems. I wanted to act American--to hang out with friends and express opinions about things Like my interest in the environment...