BY JUANA WAI SUM LEE
Neelab Yousafzai, a Master’s student in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University, was raised during a particularly violent period of Afghan history. “I witnessed abductions, I saw people getting hung in front of my eyes, I saw arms hanging from trees,” Neelab said. “But worst of all, I recognized the horrifying reality of gender-based violence in Kabul.”
Neelab still remembers how it felt to be a helpless bystander to the massive human rights violations that occurred in Afghanistan. After fleeing to America, she did not want to be a speculator to the injustice she grew up with. Instead, her dedication to human rights motivated her to try and reshape Afghanistan’s political agenda to prevent the abuses she experienced and observed during the conflict.
Her experiences, she said, “paved a path for me to be a better person and help women who have been through similar conflict, suppression and inequality.”
Neelab, a Kabul native, was born in a momentary time of peace in the Autumn of 1988, as the Soviets were withdrawing and the civil war had not yet broken out. Surrounded by a close-knit community, her father, a well-established pharmacist, took care of the neighbourhood, while her mother worked in the Department of Education. But, in 1992, the Najibullah’s government toppled, causing another devastating civil war.
While Neelab’s recollection of the conflict was grim, in the darkness of the war, she recalled happiness when her sister was born. Not long after, her brother was on the way. With new additions to the family, Neelab’s parents decided to move to a more spacious house. Their new home was an hour away from their old residence, making it seem like a new beginning. Yet, weeks after their relocation, another conflict between Jamiat-e Islami and Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami emerged. But this time, Hezb-e Islami began shelling Kabul with bombs, bullets and rockets. Then two months later, the war reached Neelab’s newfound shelter.
“At three in the morning, we could see the bombs coming and the bullets passing from where we lived,” Neelab said. “Because we lived on the top of the mountain, we could see all the rockets that were being fired – so we ran.”
Alongside her panicked family, Neelab was unable to comprehend what was happening. “My mom was carrying my newborn brother, and my dad was holding my sister, so I didn’t have anyone… All I remember is running after my parents, and the whole time, I thought I was seeing shooting stars, when I was seeing real bullets,” she said. Finally, Neelab made it to her uncle’s place. But, for the rest of 1992, hundreds of rockets hit Kabul, killing thousands of civilians – and flying ammunition became Neelab’s worst nightmare.
But in 1996, Neelab’s life became more harrowing when the Taliban seized control of Kabul and introduced a hard-line version of Islam.
While she was the daughter of two educated individuals, Neelab’s opportunities and advantages were taken away when the Taliban dominated her hometown. The Taliban implemented a strict interpretation of Sharia, enforcing ideas of radical misogyny and sexism. Although the role of women was severely limited, her father faced the almost-deadly consequence of going against the Taliban’s norms. “During the Taliban’s emergence, my dad was abducted – twice,” Neelab said. While her father was abducted once by a different group, he was taken by the Taliban because he was seen flaunting his wealth. The disappearance of her father solidified the fatal dangers of the Taliban’s treatment of both men and women.
But when her father went missing, Neelab saw her mother’s lifeless struggle. “When my father was abducted, my mother was unable to look for him because men were only allowed in public spaces,” Neelab said. With the Taliban’s harsh rule, women were seen as inferior and gender-based violence against women severely deteriorated women’s rights and freedoms. “My mother was never allowed to leave the house or even make noise in public… She wanted to continue working as a teacher, but how was she supposed to teach under the Taliban’s oppressive rule?” she said.
Weeks went by, and finally, the neighbourhood mullahs found her father lying battered on the street. When Neelab was reunited with her father, everything changed. They knew that Afghanistan was too dangerous and eight months later, they evacuated their home.
On July 19, 2000, her Uncle, Amin, sponsored twelve-year-old Neelab, along with thirty-four other family members to fly 6870 miles to America. Yet the American dream was far from reality. Her father worked fifteen hour shifts at a fried chicken restaurant, while her university educated mother worked at a local grocery store called Shoprite. From living life in comfort and enjoyment, to working tireless hours at entry-level jobs, her parents felt hopeless. For Neelab, she was thrown into a seventh-grade class with second-grade primary education and no knowledge of English. As a young girl, Neelab was forced to assimilate into American culture, helping her family integrate into their newfound, but unfamiliar, home.
Alongside the endeavor to raise six children while working 15-hour days, her parents’ American struggle drastically changed her values. Seeing her parents’ effort to provide for her family, it made money seem immaterial. “You could have all the money in the world, but with the snap of a finger, you could lose it all, just like my parents,” she said. “Nothing is guaranteed, so money was never my motivation. It was always about helping others.”
In 2011, Neelab travelled to Cape Town to help local women at two women’s rights organizations. After spending months living alongside local women, she saw the struggle for women’s equality in South Africa. “I had all this experience in Afghanistan, and I thought conflict and [women’s oppression] was just an Afghan issue. But when I went to South Africa, I saw a whole new world,” she said. Neelab’s scope of gender oppression was limited to Afghanistan, but she realized that inequality was just as prevalent in places far from home. “Regardless of what part of the world you live in, there are women struggling everywhere… Seeing familiar patterns of oppression pushed me to pursue human rights, which is why I’m working hard to help others,” she said.
Yet, nineteen years after moving to America, Neelab continues to see the Afghan diaspora enforcing cultural and gender inequality in her community. While gender oppression is prominent in her culture, Neelab is determined to fight against the patriarchal system and tackle the root cause of inequality: male-dominated politics. With her academic research, she hopes to reshape Afghanistan’s political agenda by including women in the conversation. While her research is just beginning, she hopes that her work can push public policy change and liberate Afghan women to rewrite history. “Because of my past experiences and what I’ve seen in my life, it has paved the path for me to try and use my resources to help other women… that’s why I’m going to continue doing this work until I succeed,” Neelab said.