By Emmanuel Fashakin
This scene was in Flushing, New York. June 2013. Shazia was a regular patient in the practice for a few years, attending with her four children. She was one of the many patients from Afghanistan, very friendly and loving people.
The wars in Afghanistan, starting with the invasion by the Soviet Union in 1979, and subsequent occupation for ten years took its toll. Those who escaped the brutal repression and torture faced hunger and homelessness. Many spilled into adjoining countries as refugees. Mercifully, the United States opened her doors to admit many of the Afghanis. Many of them settled in Flushing, New York.
Shazia was a very unhappy woman. She did not talk too much. Now and then I managed to make her smile a little bit, but most times her expressions were grim and melancholic. So this day, I asked her what the problem really was. Finally, she told me her story.
Shazia had a very good life before the Taliban sect, which was ruled by fundamental Islamic principles came into power. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, they were resisted by fragmented groups called the Mujahideen. When the Soviets left, and the Afghan government fell, a new group backed by Pakistan was formed by the majority Pashto tribe in the South. They called the new group “Taliban”, which means “students”. The Taliban soon gained ascendancy and took over the entire country and enforced fundamental Islamic rule.
Shazia’s husband was a pilot with Lufthansa and life could not be better. Life continued as normal initially after the Taliban took over power in Afghanistan, but soon the Taliban made and enforced new draconian rules. One of the rules was that all adult men must wear beards: nobody was allowed to be clean-shaven.
As a pilot with a major western airline, Shazia’s husband spent a lot of time outside Afghanistan. He resented having to wear a long beard. On his brief visits to the country, he was cautioned that despite his job, he was required to wear a beard. Soon he was summoned officially and informed that he had to grow his beard long, in keeping with the “tenets of Islam”, or he would be severely punished. Her husband replied that he was a pilot and would rather remain clean-shaven.
Weeks passed after this confrontation and he continued his job as a pilot. One faithful day, his plane landed in Kabul and he was given a couple of days off. He was happy to be home. It was just after midnight when the Taliban came for him. There was a knock on the door. His wife told him not to open the door, but the Taliban forced their way inside.
They got him out of bed. While under restraint, an official brought out a scroll and read out his offense to him. He had committed infractions against the State and against Islam. He was informed that he had been sentenced to death.
Just like that, with two people restraining his arms behind his back, another guy came from behind him and slit his throat. Right there in his sitting room. They dumped his twitching body in front of the wife, who was on her knees pleading with them to spare her husband. The children were wailing.
That was over twenty years earlier, in the days before 9/11, and Shazia had since settled in Flushing, NY with her four children. But she had never got a good night’s sleep since her husband was slaughtered right before her eyes. Shazia said that she could never erase the horror of the Taliban midnight visit from her mind. She is dependent on multiple psychiatric medications but they have little effect. Pray for Afghanistan.
Emmanuel O. Fashakin, M.D., FMCS(Nig), FWACS, FRCS(Ed), FAAFP, Esq.
Attorney at Law & Medical Director,
Abbydek Family Medical Practice, P.C.
Web address: http://www.abbydek.com
Cell phone: +1-347-217-6175
“Primum non nocere”
