Why I Study

An essay by Hakima

A lot of students study and each one of them has a goal for the future. Some of them want to be doctors, some engineers, some teachers, some managers and so on. They have a purpose and that purpose inspires them to study and work hard. Most of the students, it seems, want to improve their financial position. After thinking, I realized that my purpose for studying is to help my people.

A lot of girls want to be doctors when they grow up. The salary of a doctor can be really high. I have seen doctors work for up to one thousand a day! But a doctor is not what I want to become. Doctors can only help people with health care, but a president can help the people in every way. The president is who I want to become when I grow up!

The only reason why I study and work hard, is to be able to help hard working people in the future. Each time I hear that innocent people have died in an explosion or hear that a woman has been stoned to death or that every day more of our new generation becomes addicted to drugs or goes on the street to beg and then I hear that our leaders are ignoring our problems, it makes me work harder and harder to be able to stop this suffering and pain in the future.

I want the world to know that Afghanistan will rise in the age of my generation and that there are a lot talented and special people hidden in our dear Afghanistan. All they need, is just a slow breeze, like the ones on a summer morning, to wipe off the dust. In the future, that wind will pass through each home and the talents will be revealed like diamonds and shine. This is my only goal and that is why I study.

Of course in a society like my country, it is never easy to study, especially for girls. Children and teenagers or not without problems. A boy could have the challenge of finding money and food for his family members. A girl faces being afraid to walk on a street alone, being expected to take care of the housekeeping responsibilities at her parents’ home and being almost perfect in every way so that people do not think that she is crazy or has a mental problem. The biggest challenge girls face is making sure not to get married before they are old enough. This is especially hard for girls whose parents accept a marriage for them when they are too young. All girls have the responsibility to change these ideas people still have about girls and woman — especially considering them as a sheep, or sometimes even less, and underestimating their powers, talents and abilities.

Each time someone tells a girl that she cannot succeed just because she is a girl, or when a woman walks on a path where all are completely against the improvement of women, or even deny there are problems — it is not easy. Standing up for the rights of women and girls requires a powerful heart and mind. In a society like we have now, it is not easy to study. Educated people become the target of enemies who feel threatened just because a person has a glimpse of the world, the power of God — just because that person tried to know more.

Another big problem we have today is discrimination against different ethnicities around the country. Hazaras cannot study in Jalalabad, or get a job there. A person is not judged by the degree of knowledge they have, but by what gender or ethnicity they are. This results in uneducated people getting the jobs that should go to the educated, no matter who they are, and increases the amount of joblessness, hunger and migration.

There are a lot of problems, especially about woman, that I want to reduce when I grow up. That is why I study.