Freshta Tori Jan - Courage: My Story of Persecution

To Agha Jan and Madar Janfor your sacrifices.
To Ma and Poppy for giving me the childhood I missed.
To TJ, Tabasum, and Timmy daily inspirations and examples of resilience. To Rode and JPyou are missed every day. And to all the world changers in the becoming.
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Series edited by Zainab Nasrati, Zo Ruiz,
Amanda Uhle, and Dave Eggers.

Copyright 2022 by The Hawkins Project and Freshta Tori Jan

All rights reserved

First Edition

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Jacket design: Hana Anouk Nakamura

Jacket art: Adriana Bellet

Book design by Hana Anouk Nakamura

Production manager: Beth Steidle

ISBN 978-1-324-01667-0

ISBN 978-1-324-01668-7 (eBook)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

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CONTENTS

Zainab Nasrati, Zo Ruiz, and Dave Eggers

One of the best ways to understand a complicated moment in history is by reading the story of a person who lived through it. If you want to learn about what would drive a sixteen-year-old to fight for young womens rights to education in Burundi, reading her story will help you see the world through her eyes. This is what this series is all about: letting young peoplewho have seen and lived through recent world eventstell their stories.

Its important to understand other peoples struggles, especially people who live in different places or come from different backgrounds than you do. Our hope with this book series is that by hearing one persons story, our readers will learn about many peoples struggles and think about what we can do together to help make the world more peaceful and equitable.

Teenagers like Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg became iconic for standing up for what they believe is right. Other teens, not yet as well known, have also stepped up to make a difference. When Adama Bah was a teenager in post-9/11 New York, she was falsely accused of being a terrorist simply because she is Muslim. When Salvador Gmez-Coln was fifteen, his family endured Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Using his deep local knowledge and incredible dedication to helping his neighbors, Salvador founded Light & Hope for Puerto Rico and raised money and gathered supplies to help islanders with basic needs during the emergency.

The I, Witness books will bring you stories of young people like you who have faced extraordinary challenges in their lives. Their stories are exciting and surprising, filled with struggleand humor and joy, too. We hope that you will consider your own life and your own story as you read. Is there a problem in the world or in your life that you would like to help solve?

In this book, youll meet Freshta Tori Jan, who was born in Afghanistan as a member of a minority ethnic group. She faced discrimination and poverty as a young girl, and when she was twelve years old, threats from the Talibana ruling military organization that discriminates against womenforced her school to close permanently. In constant danger from the Taliban because of their ethnicity, her family had to fight for their safety, with someone in the house always staying awake all night to keep watch. Freshta helped her family survive by taking tutoring jobs teaching English. Her commitment to education helped them live, and it brought her new opportunities.

As a teenager, she was accepted into a high school in Texas and immigrated there on her own. There, she continued her education and founded an organization dedicated to helping others in need. We admire Freshtas empathy and her work to support people in need, and think that all of us can learn from what she faced and what she achieved. Some of us will never endure the terrifying things that she has, but all of us will do well to remember her strength and tenacity in the face of danger. Despite unthinkable challenges, Freshta approaches the world with kindness and generosity. As readers ourselves we were heartened and inspired by Freshtas story, and we hope you will be, too.

COURAGE

I was born in Herat, known as the poetic and artistic center of Afghanistan. In Herat, there are many historical buildings, and there are even artifacts that Alexander the Great left in the country around 300 BC.

My family and I lived in a house surrounded by tall walls. Most of the families we knew in Herat lived behind walls like this, which were supposed to protect the women of the family and keep neighbors out of your business.

We had a big garden in our yard. We would all go out and dig up the soil and plant a whole variety of vegetables and fruits, like white and green onions, turnips, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes. We also kept goats and sheep. As a toddler, I would sometimes ride the goats around the yard. I was so small they looked like horses to me. We also had a dog, Gorgi, that I loved with all my heart.

At night, I loved looking up at the stars in the yard.

When I was four years old, I was outside one night looking at some of the most beautiful stars Id ever seen. Suddenly I saw my family running. My aunts and uncles were taking things from the yard and rushing into our house and down to the basement.

My sister took me into the house.

She said, Dont move. Stay here!

And I asked, Why? but she wouldnt answer me.

The stars looked so beautiful that night and I couldnt get enough of them. I kept going back outside, and she kept taking me back inside and telling me not to move. I wouldnt listen to her. When I went out again, she finally took me into the house and slapped me. She slapped me so hard I can feel the burn to this day. She told me that those werent stars in the sky, but bullets and rockets flying over our house.

The Taliban had come. They were attacking Herat.

My house was the only one in our extended family that had a basement. It was a small basement, but it provided enough protection for our relatives. After that, whenever any type of attack would happen, everybody would go to our basement immediately. Twenty of us would huddle together and because our bathroom was in the backyard, we had to run outside to a spot near the basement, relieve ourselves, then run back inside.

Not too long after the first attack, my mom woke me up early one morning. It was still dark outside. She told me that we were moving, that we had to leave, and I started crying because I was so attached to the house and to our dog. Traveling with Gorgi would have made us a target for the Taliban, who see dogs as threatening.

We packed up everything in the house and we left Gorgi there. It was very hard for me. The Taliban is a terrorist group, and they were becoming very active in the rural region where I lived. Most of my family left with my dad, and they loaded trucks with our belongings and headed to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, where it would be safer. My mom and I were the last ones to leave our house in Herat. I remember hugging Gorgi so long. She didnt know we were leaving for good.