Hope and Healing

By GThomas

This is a story of hope and healing, born of resiliency in the face of war.

I served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with an intelligence agency. I was outside the wire almost daily. I saw and experienced firsthand the horrors of war inflicted not only on those in combat, but on women and children. I’m a disabled veteran, but this story is not about that- it’s about the incredible courage and resiliency of the Afghan women and children I witnessed survive and fight back, and what that did to me, and for me, to this day.

I retired from the military after my last combat tour in 2012. I was so inspired by the courage and resiliency I saw in the women and children of Afghanistan who fought back despite the violence around them, by being normal and hopeful and determined to prevail, that I sought out an NGO that was doing humanitarian work in Afghanistan. I was subsequently brought on their staff because of my skills and experience. I didn’t realize until afterward that in doing so, psychologically I was processing guilt, as well as seeking cathartic relief for my PTSD- I was seeking what I saw in these children that so impressed me (this I discovered later in VA therapy sessions).

In January 2024 I completed my 13th trip into Afghanistan, as an American working with a Swiss-based humanitarian NGO. I’m now an educational psychologist working primarily on educational projects in Afghanistan. On my two trips this past year I’ve had to navigate the Taliban, while being stopped, threatened, questioned, arrested and taken to a police station and placed under armed guard while questioned, and searched many times, among other harassing events. Somewhat unbelievably I’ve been able to carry out my work, albeit quite carefully, and necessarily covertly.

In 2022, I had founded, with a colleague, an underground school for female Afghan high school students, which is of course in direct contravention of Taliban policy. It is very dangerous for the students and the staff. They go to school every day at high risk. We are currently educating 100 high school young women and will soon be absorbing another 200 young women from another underground high school.

School aged children in Afghanistan have never known life without war. Currently 80% of school-aged girls are not in school. Illiteracy rates for girls run at about 92%.

Longstanding cultural persecution, as well as decades of war-related trauma and the more recent persecution and educational denial of Afghan women to attend high school and college by the Taliban, has significantly impacted female Afghan students and their pursuit of education. Afghan women and girls, by any means possible, continue to seek access to education despite traditional oppression as well as the very real risk of violence to both them and their families at the hands of the Taliban. These young women and girls are fighters.

Despite obstacles we in the US can barely imagine, at great risk, these Afghan girls daily demonstrate tremendous courage, resiliency, and fortitude:

HZ is in grade 11 in the underground (masked) school in Afghanistan. Her story, in her own words:

When the Taliban took the control of Afghanistan I thought everything stopped, the sky of my life became dark and the sun suddenly disappeared. Young girls are not allow to go to school. That was the most disappointing words for all the girls of my country. I cannot understand this. After this time going to school just became a wish for me.

All the girls were force to stay at home. Many of them were depressed, me also. There was no hope, no positive thought, no anywhere to go, actually to any goal. We were just surviving.

My goal was studying my school, and going to the university to become a doctor. But there was no school. Fortunately, I became aware of a new program in our town.

It was unbelievable for me. I was very happy and I decided to join. The first day was very wonderful. I participated to the program. (masked) established. That day many people spoke and encourage all of us to study and never give up. That day the sun shined. After one year our life become bright again. I can remember all the girls wishes come through suddenly. Day by day everything changed. We started playing sport also. Mr. M, manager of our school and our teachers always motivated us to study and be hopeful. With (masked) my life changed. Now my life is meaningful.

We provide help and hope for them. But this relationship, between two cultures that could not be more unlike, is symbiotic; I draw inspiration from them and their teachers as they brave public whippings and possible imprisonment for just simply going to school, yet to school they go- every day; they are determined to succeed despite threats and violence daily. PTSD rates among Afghan school-aged children are among the highest in the world. At the same time, they see us, at risk, coming in regularly to work with them- to teach, to counsel, to expose to them a world of hope and dreams outside the oppressive walls around them, and hopefully inspire them with hope and a path they can navigate to an education and a way out for some of them, and for some of them a way to heal their country by giving back.

That I might have the opportunity to give these amazing young women hope and a way to heal is remarkable enough, but at the same time my work with them has gone a long way toward my own healing. There is a wonder in there that brings peace- and for combat vets, that is a priceless commodity.