“Love letters from Kabul – on friends”
A fairer life for all
Dear friends and fellow human beings,
21st December, 2012 ( Gregorian calendar )
1st Jadi, 1391 ( Afghan calendar )
From Abdulhai
I got angry with my close friend, Hakim, again.
So, I wrote him a note:
Dear Hakim Jan,
Today, I will leave ( leave Kabul for Bamiyan ) because we have had problems with each other many times. I am sorry. I hope one day I can come to meet you again. Hakim Jan, my heart broke, no more tears in my eyes. No more Abdulhai here in Kabul. No more sitting together. No more talking about the meaning of life. All of this work that you and I did was like a dream. Tonight the dream changed. I hope the tears can come again to my eyes. I had hoped to love others but I could not. I had wanted to change, but it was like a dream, like toys that kids play with.
Hope, Abdulhai
While I was crying, I told Hakim that I did not love him, a few times, and I kept crying.
Perhaps, war robs us of all friends.
Sometimes I feel that getting along with the other youth in the Afghan Peace Volunteers’ community takes a lot of effort. But yet sometimes I think that trying to love others is meaningful and worthwhile.
I can’t quite decide if I’ll return to Kabul.
Abdulhai’s note to Hakim
From Samia
Muzhda, Walina and Wajia are my friends. The other day, Muzhda insulted Wajia and Wajia cried.
I agree with Wajia that hurtful words shouldn’t leave the mouth of a friend, because hurtful words make people cry.
Later, Muzhda and Wajia reconciled with one another, as friends do. I think that among friends, all problems can be resolved.
How nice it would be if friends always gave each other warm hugs!
Watch Samia and her friends talk about friendship
From Hakim
If the international community could see Abdulhai and Samia and every Afghan as human beings who can be wonderful friends, the U.S./NATO coalition would not be able to extend the war for one second more.
Wars not only rob us of friends, they manufacture distrust, anger and hate at a dehumanizing profit.
Abdulhai’s and Samia’s love for their family and friends seals my conviction that love is not exclusive to any human being, to any ethnic group, to any economic class, or to any faith.
Love is borderless.
Abdulhai and I often talk about this, and we’ve been testing love’s limits; it isn’t easy, but breaking borders, starting from within ourselves, isn’t an easy vision.
Painted on the signboard at Bamiyan Peace Park, which the Afghan Peace Volunteers had a hand in developing, is the Afghan Peace Volunteers’ hope in brush strokes of Dari, “Even a little of our love is stronger than the war of the worlds.” This means organizing, persevering, questioning, imagining, staying true and resisting with every little bit of love we can harness together, because our global norms today are neither peaceful nor fair.
“Dear Abdulhai, we should not just sit together, and not just discuss the meaning of life. We should work, listen, laugh and find the courage to cry. I’ve learnt from you that listening, laughing and crying can all be forms of resistance to the status quo that erodes our souls.”
“Abdulhai, love is much larger than the sum of all of us. Please come back to Kabul.”
Hakim with Abdulhai in Kabul
Love,
Abdulhai, Samia and Hakim
Dear Abdulhai,
Please do not walk away. Please return to Kabul.
If you cannot return to Kabul and work out your differences and hurt, how much more difficult is it for groups of people who are hurt to stop hurting others?
You see now the difficulty of the project that Hakim has taken up.
Hurt and hatred cannot solve problems. But love can conquer.
Dear Abdulhai, dear Hakim, cooperation and community take such a big effort, living with others always involves difficulties. You have both achieved so much, I am sure in time you will be able to look back and see the good work you have done, and how you did it together. I wish you both peace, sometimes we need to have a good break and time away from those we live with and love.
Samia, you are a beautiful girl, you are lucky to have your friends and they are lucky to have you.
Love from Laura in Melbourne, Australia
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Dear Abdulhai, dear Hakim, i hope both ot you are good and healthy.I wish that one day the war will be over and we will all find peace.
Love, love, love is the only who stood up against the war.
Abdollahi and Hakim that you like each other these moments are not returnable.
Be careful with each other.
Because of your honesty, I love you,
because you care above your pain,
that peace can come through
how you live, I see hope.
Hold that in your hearts
and keep your heads high
and arms ready to embrace
knowing you are giving
your children a future.