A Survivor of The Mazar-e- Sharif Genocide

Narrator: Suhaila

Victim: Sakhidad Tahiri, Hikmatullah

Date of the incident: August 09, 1998

Location of the incident: Mazar-e-Sharif city, airport, on the flight line

Suhaila is one of the survivors of the Mazar-e- Sharif genocide carried out by the Taliban. As a result of this genocide, 13 of her family members were killed, including her father and brother while Suheila was severely beaten up. Only two of the 13 dead relatives were later found and given a proper burial. She still does not know where the rest of her family members were buried. At times, she misses her father a lot and it is in those moments of difficulty that she would like to visit her father’s grave and complain to him about the hardships of her life. But she does not even know where her father’s grave is. A fact that deeply disturbs her.

Her only solace is a pearl box that her father made for her and she never abandons even for a minute. It is her most valuable reminder of him. A way for her to keep the memory of her father alive forever. It is also a symbol of all the evils of war. An evil that takes away the lives of loved ones and separates sons and daughters from their fathers, ending the kindest of all human relationships.

Sometimes these fathers disappear and their children have no idea about their whereabouts. Other times, it is the parents who are deprived of seeing their children again. For Suheila the pearl box represents a symbol for all those children who lost their fathers during Afghanistan’s many decades of war. She wants to keep it in her own museum to let the present and future generations know about her pain and suffering. In her view, the pearl box symbolizes the rejection of violence as a means to resolve conflict.

Suhaila’s Story

My father had just finished his lunch and gone back to work on his piece of land. In those times we had a lot of land and even owned a tractor. One day, the Taliban came and asked him to get down from the tractor without turning off the engine. They then went on and handcuffed him. When my brother came to see what was going on the Taliban arrested him too. Until today, I do not know what happened to them and how they were killed. Only one of my uncles survived. He told me that my father was killed and that he buried him but I never saw my father’s dead body. What I heard later is that the Taliban killed my father and brother with one single shot as they did not want to waste any bullets.

We escaped from our house as the Taliban closed in on the area that we were living at the time. We returned back home after a few days. The Taliban had attacked our village and taken whatever they could find. All the houses in our village had been burnt. Nothing was left in our homes as the Taliban had torched them all. The only thing I found was the pearl box that my father made for me while he was imprisoned during Najibullah’s regime. Since then, I have never let go of it and I am always very cautious not to lose it since it is very valuable for me. I decided to use it for the Memory Box project. This box is the most important thing in my life as it is the only thing left from my father.

The Taliban killed 13 family members of mine including my father, brother, uncles and cousins. Only two of them were found and buried.