The education champion who survived attack
▶ Afghan Breshna Musazai survived an attack in 2016 and now helps girls pursue an education, Jack Dutton writes
Breshna Musazai said she believed that to achieve peace in Afghanistan, powerful nations such as the US must put pressure on Kabul’s neighbours that support and fund terrorism to force them to stop.
The US and the Taliban were in talks for a year, but US President Donald Trump called them off in September after a bomb attack by the insurgents killed at least a dozen people in Kabul, including a US soldier.
Breshna, 29, said that even if those negotiations hadn’t broken down, they would not have help to bring peace to Afghanistan.
“The Taliban didn’t promise they would stop killing us, they simply wanted to a make a deal with the Americans, which is not in our interests,” she told The National.
“If they do come to an agreement, only the US and the Taliban will benefit from it.”
Breshna had her own run-in with the extremists and the group almost killed her in 2016 when she was studying for her law degree in Kabul.
In August that year, she was about to leave a mosque at the university after evening prayers when there was an explosion and the Taliban shot their way into the compound.
Students were screaming and trying to hide. Breshna tried to escape, but without shoes from prayers she had to run barefoot over rubble, with broken glass everywhere.
She made her way to a hallway where she saw a man wearing what looked like a police uniform. He shot her in the leg. The pain was agonising and she played dead but he shot another bullet into her foot on the same leg.
Breshna continued to play dead for five hours and said she hoped her ruse would be enough to guarantee her survival.
When the first bullet hit her, Breshna’s phone had flown out of her hand, landing in front of her face.
“The whole time I was scared – what if my phone rings? What if they know that I’m alive? What if they come closer to me?” she said.
She realised to her relief, her phone was on silent. “I saw my family were calling me and I knew they were so worried about me,” she said. “Inside my heart I was telling them to be patient, I’m still alive.”
That evening, a police officer entered the building and began shooting blindly into the dark hallway.
Breshna said she could feel the bullets passing above her.
“I thought I wouldn’t survive because hundreds of bullets were going over me when they started shooting and during that time a third bullet hit me on that same leg,” she said.
“I decided to move because I realised if I didn’t move I would definitely die.”
After she stood up, the officer saw her, stopped firing and took her to the hospital.
After receiving treatment for a few weeks at a hospital in Kabul, her university sponsored her to have further treatment at a hospital in Texas.
After she recovered from several months of treatment, Breshna’s fiance, who travelled with her to the US, moved to Canada.
But she refused to follow him, saying she felt she had a duty to return to Afghanistan to educate people about their rights.
Breshna defied the odds in June last year when she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the American University of Afghanistan.
She had been shot by militants in one leg and suffered paralysis in the other due to polio, but triumphed over extremists and extreme circumstances.
She has been compared to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 when she was 15 and received the Nobel Peace Prize two years later for efforts to campaign against the suppression and lack of education for children.
Like Malala, Breshna said she would not be silenced. Her mission now is to educate Afghans and allow more young people in the country to go to school and learn about their country’s complicated political picture.
Unicef estimates that 3.7
Unicef estimates that about 3.7 million children are out of school across Afghanistan – 60 per cent of whom are girls
million children are out of school in Afghanistan – 60 per cent of whom are girls. Many children have also been traumatised by an 18-year war between coalition forces and the Taliban.
The conflict has forced many schools to close, with at least 700 shutting last year as a result of the war. Unicef said that about 3.8 million children are in need of humanitarian assistance.
“We need good leaders and a good system, not a corrupt one,” Breshna said.
“We need someone who really works for the country and not only for themselves. It’s hard to trust our system and our leaders so I think young, committed leaders can help.”
She said Afghanistan needed to put more pressure on its neighbours to stop their support of extremist groups.
“The US and other powerful countries also must help. If they really want peace in Afghanistan, they should put pressure on countries like Pakistan and others supporting terrorism,” she said.
Breshna said she believed young Afghans needed to be educated to “spread awareness so they know what is wrong and what is right”.
“There are people who are not educated, who are not aware of their rights. These kinds of people support the Taliban,” she said.
She said that even some of her relatives believed the Taliban were right, while some even said she deserved to be shot because she was studying at an American university.
Breshna said those views were a result of not been educated properly.
“We really need education for these kinds of people who are ignorant and don’t value the rights of women. There are even women who are don’t value their rights,” she said.
“They think foreigners are here to invade us, to convert us to Christianity and take Islam from Afghanistan.
“It’s a lack of awareness, a lack of education and that’s why they support the Taliban. These kind of people are usually in rural areas.”
Breshna has been working with several NGOs, most recently the Women’s Initiative to Strengthen and Empower, and delivering speeches to help teach young people about the dangers of the Taliban.
She addressed crowds of young leaders last month at the One Young World conference in London, where she shared her story.
Working with the Women’s Initiative, Breshna said she was looking to provide more young Afghan girls with opportunities to study.
She said she did not regret returning to Afghanistan, despite being advised not to.
“I’ve always felt I had a responsibility as an Afghan citizen to do something for the people in my country who are in need,” she said.
“I really wanted to do something even before I got injured so when I came back, I realised that I made the right decision because many people were inspired. We really need the commitment of young Afghans for a better future.”