About Happiness Halima’s list of dreams is neither very long nor very ambitious. Her dream is to be happy. Certainly many people in war-torn societies like Afghanistan have similar dreams of happiness. For them, happiness is not about prosperity, wealth and power. Neither is it about having stylish and luxurious mansions, or expensive cars. In short, they do not have as sophisticated an understanding of happiness as ordinary people in other countries have. I’ll never forget those days of being abandoned by everyone and left without food. Whenever food rations were distributed, I went and took them home. Those were the only times we could eat properly. Today, I am very sick, but cannot afford to go and see a doctor. My son is twenty years old, but thin and weak. We now live in a rental house. I will never forget Aziz Gul. It is very strange because he was my stepson. His mother had left him. Aziz Gul suffered a lot and finally died at a young age. Unfortunately, war has denied her even the simplest of dreams. Six years after getting married, she lost her husband and was left alone with four children, with the fourth one being born six months after the death of Ghulam Hazarat. For three years they survived thanks to the assistance of the Najibullah government. However, after the Mujahidin took power in Kabul, the situation changed and government funding was no longer available for them. As a result, Halima had to sell her home utensils one after another in order to feed her children. When there was nothing left to sell, she had no option but to wash and clean people’s clothes and homes. Other times, she worked as a sewer. She remembers many days when she could only provide dry bread for her children. Today she is 45 years old, has a heart disease and can no longer operate the sewing machine. The nightmare of poverty has returned. She does not know whether a day will come when she can finally feed her children properly. If such a day were to arrive, she would finally consider herself happy. Such is Halima’s modest understanding of happiness. The Memory Box Initiative: Seeking to Break the Cycle of Violence and Tragedy in Afghanistan The Memory Box Initiative: Seeking to Break the Cycle of Violence and Tragedy in Afghanistan 21 On the contrary, their world is extremely small and their expectations are very modest. For Halima and people liker her, happiness means bread. It means being able to provide a piece of bread for their children to sleep at night with their bellies full so that they can dream of other things than something to eat. At best, happiness means having a home and that one’s children sleep under a roof, in which they can grow up in peace. In addition, for people like Halima happiness means being looked upon as a normal member of society. As long as the community does not humiliate her and her sons and they can live without fear and intimidation, she is content. Halima does not desire much more than these simple things. 22