Essay 4.
Marien Lara Orbezo Lira
FYW 100-C
November 30th
Courage led Saima to fulfill her dreams.
This is the story of an Afghan girl whose life had a change she always dreamed of. Saima, the main character, relates the story. Since the moment when Saima´s father stated that his daughter would be stronger than a thousand Pashtun boys, and different than any other Pashtun girl, Saima´s firm ideas became even stronger.
The story starts in a country where women are treated poorly and abused. Saima tells how she made her life different than the one a normal Pashtun woman would have. A huge opportunity was presented when Saima and her siblings and cousins moved to America to get a better education. Moving to a western country was a big help for Saima in order to live in a different and better environment than the one she was used to. Going through some cultural adaptations didn’t stop Saima from reaching her dream of both going back to Afghanistan and living a life full of freedom. Saima´s return to Afghanistan was not a normal one. She went back as an American and Pashtun interpreter for the U.S. Army. It was definitely a life full of excitement, emotions and lots of different experiences when Saima traveled to different parts of Afghanistan, and even to America for a short time.
Everyone has different dreams. Saima´s dream was to have a better life than the one she would have had if she stayed in Afghanistan. Her idea of success was not to become famous and known everywhere, but to have a calm life with the rights every woman deserves to have. To get this life, Saima had to make decisions that would lead her to the life of freedom she wanted. Many of the decision she took could put her in a risky situation, but she knew that in the end she would not regret them. It was definitely courage that made her take the right paths through her life.
Sometimes courage means leaving a comfortable life or a family behind. In the first part of the novel, Saima showed how courageous she was when she left her uncles´ house. “Saima, your father would be ashamed of you” (49). These eight words that Uncle A said while having a discussion about Saima being friends with someone of the opposite sex, were what made Saima step out and showed her courage to defend herself. Saima knew that her father would not be ashamed of her, and thought as she left the house, “My certainty of that fact gave me the courage I have been lacking all those years when I have lived in terror of being into a life I did not want” (50). “I did not know where I was going, I just needed to leave my uncles´ house” was her next thought (50). Saima knew that it would not be easy to start a life by herself, but at least she would find the life with freedom that she expected to have. Another example of this kind of courage was when Saima joined the US Army. By this time, Saima had been living in America for more than a decade, had gotten a house to live with her siblings and even brought her mother to live with them. Even though Saima was enjoying life with her family, new job, freedom and a relationship, she had thought about going back to Afghanistan. “I had been thinking about returning for a while- just not considering the when or the how” (65), mentioned Saima. It was until she got a job offer as a translator for the US Army when, once again, Saima had the courage to leave her family and comfortable life that she had been living until then and went back to her country of origin to live a new experience.
Courage can mean going against your culture. All through the story, Saima always presented herself as a Pashtun female, but she also mentioned how all the years that she lived in America gave her an American cultural style. Saima respected her Muslim culture while she was in Afghanistan, but when she felt like things were wrong she had the courage to defend herself and acted not as an Afghan woman but as an American one. The Afghan part in her knew that going against her culture would cause her problems and could risk her life, but her American part made her strong enough to show Afghan people a different perspective on women. When Saima was in Afghanistan she visited her family. This was the first time after a long time that she would have a real interaction with some of her family members living in Afghanistan. Even though Saima was in Afghanistan as an American, as she was staying with her family she had to act as a typical Pashtun woman. She was given a black burqa and a scarf to wear and had to be accompanied by a male member when she went out. Only because she was visiting, Saima was allowed to eat with her cousins and aunties at the table and not in the kitchen as her female cousins. One day, Saima wanted to go shopping to the local bazaar. The main reason for the trip to the bazaar was to buy some fabrics for Saima. When they were at the bazaar Saima found the store she wanted to shop at, but as it was a Pashtun tradition, all the men there, even their male cousin, ignored Saima and her female cousin. Saima had promised her cousin to act like a Pashtun woman, but then her Americanized part made her act different. “I suddenly realized I didn´t have to behave this way. I had an option, unlike the poor women in Chadri, miserable all around me” (159). After thinking about this, and knowing it could be a risk for her and her cousin, Saima pulled off the scarf and yelled at her male cousin. This was an example of how Saima´s courage made her face against her culture and defend her rights.
Another typical Pashtun tradition was that Pashtun women could only be married to Afghan men, and this would not be chosen by the bride, but by her family. This tradition was also a chance for Saima to use her courage and showed her family that she would not follow her cultural traditions exactly even if that meant having her family against her. When Saima was dating Ben, Saima´s uncles started to tell Saima´s mother and siblings what a bad family they were for letting Saima date an American guy. One day, after one of the meetings, Saima´s mother finally said to her, “Marry whomever you want. I´m okay with your decision” (227). Neither Saima nor her mother were surprised about this, as Saima´s mother said she remembered when Saima was about nine or ten years old and said, “I´m never going to marry an Afghan man!” (227). Since that moment, Saima´s mother knew that there would be no one that would change Saima´s mind. These situations were not the only ones where Saima broke some of her Pashtun traditions. When she moved to America, she had a haircut and her forehead tattoo removed because they were distracting the boys in Saima´s School. Not doing this would just make boys talk to Saima and she was not allowed to talk to any of the boys.
Challenging yourself is a way to show courage. Each person has different ways to challenge him or herself. Saima did it in different situations. One time when Saima challenged herself was when she was given the honor to give a speech at the International Women´s Day. It was not only nerves, but also the idea that, as she said, “Now I would be put on display to be judged and despised by my father´s people” (107). She was a Pashtun woman wearing western clothes and talking to men freely. This was something really unusual in Afghanistan. Saima ended up giving a good speech and gave Afghan men a new perspective on women. A new opportunity was presented to Saima when she got an offer to join the Human Terrain Team. This new job was not as easy as it seemed to be. It required the members to interact with the people from a village in order to get some information and knowledge so that the village could get help from the Americans.
Having the strength to do what you are afraid of is a courageous action. Saima said something about this the first time she went back to Afghanistan. “For one thing, I have always thought that the only way to stop fearing something is to be immersed in it” (72). When Saima was sent to America for a training session to join the Human Terrain Team, she needed to get three injections so that she could be sent back to Afghanistan. She was advised to not get more than one shot at a time, but Saima had two options: she either got one shot at a time but would have to wait several weeks to leave America, or she could get the three shots at once and risked getting sick. Saima decided to get the three shots even though she knew it was risky, but as she said later, “ I hadn´t wanted to be given a chance to rethink my decision” (274). When Saima said this she showed that she was not very sure or even scared about going back to Afghanistan for another mission, yet she had the courage to make the decision quickly before it was too late.
Courage means pursuing things you want even if people tell you it is not possible. Once Saima had joined the Human Terrain Team, the whole team was called to a meeting with the brigade commander. When Saima presented herself as an American citizen originally from Afghanistan, the commander asked her to be his interpreter. Saima rejected the offer, but she offered to find a good interpreter for him. Everyone on the team thought and even told Saima that it would be impossible for her, as the commander was a pretty powerful man who needed a great English-Pashtun speaker such as her. When Saima´s boss asked her to find an interpreter for him, so that Saima could work for the commander she said, “No problem, I said thinking, this could be my Mission Impossible” (288). Saima knew it was a difficult task, but she did not let the comments of others to pull her back from this new goal. Saima did not care that it was a small goal, she still wanted to accomplish it.
By one or another reason Saima was put in different situations throughout her life. Some of them made a big difference in Saima´s life such as the moment when she left her uncles´ house. Another ones were risky actions like when she took off the scarf at the bazaar. The only fact of going against not only her culture but also her family, or joining the Army, showed how Saima really fought to fulfill her dream.
It is true that Saima had more opportunities to change her life than other Pashtun girls, but it is also true that she had the courage to take the correct decisions that, in then end, determined a different life for her.