Nearly a quarter century of persistent war and bloodshed in Afghanistan have left behind its painful footsteps on the exhausted future of the country with worst ever miseries. Less or more, the suffering and knocking blows of the selfishness and power seeking ogres targeted every joint of this holy and immaculate nation in the last decades of war and bloodshed.
In fact, the war was one of the greatest factors to the poverty and illiteracy in Afghanistan, and when these both create their shapes of adversity in the society, the distinct movement toward the dungeon will start simultaneously and this has proved in the last more than 30 years. This has had its worst impact on the Afghan women, child and youth that left us all isolated with worst ever miseries.
Whoever owned the power isolated the youth and deprived them from their very basic human rights. Closed schools on them, instead taught them how to take a gun, under various pretexts, war for power and engagement of the governmental authorities into the interpersonal and inter-group competitions and disputes that caused the common people and the lower level of the society keep into the deprivation and civil death, roasted on the fire with wrangling.
Passing all those horrifying days under the domination of power owning people, we still live under the dismal shadow of tragedies, disorientation and bafflement in its wake, overwhelming for all, but especially burdensome on the youth and other vulnerable and most excluded group of the society in the presence of the so-called democratic government.
Thus, gun instead of pen and hatred instead of love are what have been taught to Afghanistan’s so-called lost generation. The nation’s legion of youth who have never experienced anything in their lifetimes but conflicts, bloodshed, discrimination with worst every misery in their cities and villages. They had to live in precarious refugee conditions in the neighboring countries with worst lambastes seeking for their rights or education.
The remaining ones, seeking for their survivals under the Taliban were not attending their classes in peaceful and educational environment with basic facilities but rather, they were studying in the front line of war and in the mine fields, under the hot tents with no water, insufficient food and stationary on the floor with no carpet or chair facilities to enjoy the quality education just like other generations in the neighboring and foreign countries. Neither were their activities in the safe-playground nor on the football pitch but rather in the worries of exile and constant unrest.
The same generation who were getting education in such condition, were also supposed to do deal with all home expenses. They were supposed to sell some minor things on the streets or cleaning the cars after their classes in order to feed their hungry brothers and sisters with constant security threats that could take their life at any point of time.
In the same way, these youth are steeped in lots of difficulties caused demolition of their talents, characters, and pride in a wide range. Discrimination and disputes behind it is one of the great factors, which take the youth of the country to the circle of conflicts and to the ground to cold war or some other illegal activities.
Neither, their rights were safe under the Taliban rule, nor they experience equal rights and opportunities in the presence of the so-called democratic government that promises equality and job opportunities in its every debate.
In fact, they remained isolated and completely annihilated from getting education, health care facilities, social rights, including other fundamental human rights in the absence of a proper youth rights law and nutrition programs that could likely guarantee a good career for every Afghan youth.
In addition, they have not only been ignored to their fundamental human rights by their parents, scholars, village elders and other fundamental groups, but rather every law and force came into power considered and treated them like the second class citizens with lowest working opportunities.
The young men and women were persistently invisible, doubly disadvantaged and were left out of many youth focused interventions and activities in part because they were not perceived to represent threat to the social welfare, political and economic stability. As a result, other social identities are also critical and significant numbers of these suffering young men and women in different contexts are today unemployed and socially excluded on the basis of disability, ethnicity, caste and discrimination.
Perhaps, this is completely ignored that sixty eight percent of the Afghan population under 25 are those who represent a cross-section of our society and that they are an integral, large and cross-cutting segment of a wide range of region’s development ambitions, including good governance, human rights, education, and health care, rule of law, security, and employment.
Afghanistan’s fragile peace and future security rests paramount on the ability of this generation of youth to find their productive roles in society, to assume the onus of reconciling deep-rooted national divisions, and to push forward the difficult task of establishing a free and equitable society based on democratic principles that everyone of us pray for.
Lack of serious attention to education, economy, and youth’s civil rights; and on the other hand, harshness and, prevalence of non Islamic customs and superstitions under the name and right of Islamic culture; empower the pillars of adversity by the sun-dried bricks and materials.
The youth secure the growth and development of evolutionary trends of general processes and establishment of social communications between human societies; and pave the ways for betterment and developments in the social, economical, political, and cultural fields.
The youth ensures the public contribution and participation in a higher level, and create intellectually the efficacious and effective policies for the future governments for a promising future. The very basic changes and the considerable transformations belong to the youth of a nation but unfortunately, the concept to such challenges that youth can overcome doesn’t even exist in our country.
As the country is in the process of rebuilding democracy, educating the youth is key to the country’s continued democratic development. The general understanding of basic democratic principles is still rather low, especially in the bordered zone areas of the larger cities.
As the youth have always supported a democratic government if the chances are offered to them and their talents are considered, the state will likely experience a life free from injustice and discrimination while opportunities for the betterment of the nation for all would be the first principle.