Maryam was forced to close her gallery and work on art projects only in school and at home. “It was the most frightening moment of my entire life.” “One of them put his hand on my shoulder and said: ‘Daughter of the dog, if I see you here again I will kill all of your family,’ ” Maryam wrote. But soon they received another letter, and one day when Maryam was leaving the gallery two men approached her. Maryam and her partner didn’t take the letter seriously, not believing it was really from the Taliban. Close your gallery immediately and do not mislead the people.” You know painting is against the Islam religion roles. Written in Pashto, Maryam wrote, the letter said, “This letter is for guiding you to a right way. One morning, Maryam noticed an envelope taped to the gallery door. But “it was not long until something went wrong,” she wrote in a statement to the Independent. In late 2019, while Maryam was still in art school, she opened a gallery with a fellow student. “My stories were mostly about suicide bombings, explosions, and violence against women,” Shabnam says. She also worked concurrently as a reporter for a national news organization in Afghanistan. In 2020, Shabnam entered university to study journalism. As a child, she loved to draw almonds, which were plentiful in her hometown - but this was her first opportunity for professional training beyond her high school art class. Maryam had passed exams to skip two grades in school, and Shabnam had enrolled at age four with her older sister.Īfter graduation, Maryam went on to art school in Kabul. The sisters continued their education in the city, taking courses at a public high school. Maryam and Shabnam’s hometown in Badakhshan Province. The family moved to Kabul, the capital, which at the time was free from Taliban control. There were robberies and killings, and women were raped, Shabnam says. In 2015 the Taliban took control of the province where the family was living. Their father responded that Maryam was just a child and that she deserved the same opportunities and rights as his sons. A religious scholar at the mosque contacted Maryam’s father and told him, “She’s a girl and she shouldn’t ride a bicycle,” she says. She would ride her bike to school and to her father’s shop, sometimes doing laps back and forth just for fun.īut there was a mosque along the road, and people began to notice her riding. Maryam’s brother taught her to ride a bicycle when she was 12 and she loved it. Shabnam says their older brother had a lot to do with those unconventional beliefs: he studied in France and when he came home he broadened his family’s ideas about culture, tradition, and customs. The family is progressive by Afghan standards - the parents believe in equal rights and educational opportunities for women. A painting by Maryam of an Afghan woman selling her children after the Taliban took over. Their father owned a small grocery store where Maryam started working when she was eight. ![]() Maryam and Shabnam grew up there, enjoying a relatively peaceful childhood - the Taliban was not yet a serious threat. In 2005, the family moved to a different province in northern Afghanistan to pursue better educational opportunities. They lived in a small house in a rural area with their father, mother, and four siblings. Maryam and Shabnam - whose names have been changed to protect other members of their family who remain in Afghanistan - were born in 20, respectively, in Badakhshan, a province in the northeastern region of the country. They are young women who fled Afghanistan and, after living for 18 months in India, have made it to Wellfleet with the help of David Simpson and Kathy Fletcher, at whose home they are living and where they were interviewed for this article. (Photo by Agata Storer)īut the two sisters are neither tourists nor locals. Sisters Maryam and Shabnam are safe in Wellfleet but fear for their family’s safety in Afghanistan. ![]() WELLFLEET - Maryam and Shabnam have been enjoying a typical Outer Cape summer - going to Newcomb Hollow Beach and the Fox and Crow Café and on whale watch excursions -all the normal pleasures of the season that tourists and locals savor.
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