What the Children Say

"Afghanistan’s Children Speak to the UN Special Session 19th - 21st September 2001"

'Don't make me say the truth or I shall be hanged.
Nobody will take the side of truth'.
Child in Afghanistan


'I want to let my nation know that peace is the best thing
and they should think about it.'
Girl in Herat, Afghanistan


‘Being disabled my family does not listen to me. Because of this I am almost refusing to eat the food they give me. The children of my own age won't let me join their games because I amdisabled.’
Disabled child in Mazar, Afghanistan


‘I love to be respected. Weall need respect.’
Child in Kabul, Afghanistan


'If we want to survive we should get rid of bullets, pistols, fighter planes and war.'
Child in Afghanistan


'Clean water is the most important thing in our lives.’
Child in Afghanistan


'What is happening to our country,
That some of us are burning,
And others are benefiting?
Our country is broken into pieces.
Yet still I remember my broken land,
And cry for it.'


'In our country nobody grows old,
Because everybody is dying.
How long must this be?
My heart is full of blood.
Even if I will be hanged
I will keep writing my poems
And colour the pages with my words.'
Child in Afghanistan


'Peace is not sold
anywhere in the world,
Otherwise I would have bought
it for my country.'
Girl in Afghanistan


'War is causing all our troubles. It has taken our schools
and our houses and made us leave our land.
The hospitals are ruined, the farms are destroyed,
the children become orphans and the desperate
families are forced to sell their children,
the people become disabled and the women
are left widowed and traumatized.
The children are forced to work on the streets or
go to Iran and Pakistan to find work.'
Street working child in Kabul, Afghanistan


'I hate the rockets because children have lost arms and legs.'
Child in Kabul, Afghanistan


'Knowledge is the torch of life'
School child in Afghanistan