Masuma Sayed - March 2022

When Masuma Sayed returned to her native city of Kandahar in Afghanistan for the first time in 28 years, she’d hoped to spend a month with her two sisters and their families, but left after just nine days: “It was too overwhelming for me to be there. I thought I would stop breathing if I stayed.” She was haunted by memories of the evening that Taliban members burst into her family’s home and killed her mother and older sister, who had been targeted because she was about to marry a soldier in the ruling government.

Through the years, Masuma has lost 10 family members at the hands of the Taliban. Just this past June, a brother-in-law and his brother were killed because they worked as contractors with U.S. forces. Right now, Masuma is trying to save more than 20 family members from a similar fate. Again she sees the blood that flowed from her sister and her mother. She remembers running out into the night and wandering the streets of Kandahar, afraid to return home for hours after they were killed. She fears the same thing will happen to her family members now that the Taliban is back in power. She has seen it happen before with her own eyes. “For some people, war is like a movie. For me, war is reality. I have lost everything. I’m not just sad for myself. I’m sad for everybody.”

Excerpted from story by Kelley Bouchard, pressherald.com, August 30, 2021.