“Warda! Come inside!” shouted Banou as she saw her seven-year-old daughter squatting in front of the metal railing of the balcony. Their apartment was on the second floor of a government-owned building in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. Afghanistan, the Graveyard of Empires.
The child was intently watching a column of Soviet armoured personnel carriers roll down the adjacent road.
Banou adjusted the scarf around her head and rushed out to the balcony.
“Naughty girl! You're going to catch a cold,” she said, grabbing the child and locking the door behind her as she entered the sitting room.
“Stay inside, my kitten,” she said softly and kissed her daughter on the cheek.
It was ten in the morning—a day in the last week of December 1979.
The proxy war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America had begun.
Warda’s father, Saifullah Suleimanzai, was a Pashtun by ethnicity.
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The Pashtuns made up the biggest ethnic community in Afghanistan and the second-largest in neighboring Pakistan. Islam, Pashtunwali, and a grasp of the Pashto language formed the foundation of Pashtun society.
The Pashtuns live by a code of conduct known as Pashtunwali. Its principles include hospitality, granting asylum, bravery, self-respect and pride in oneself, faith in God, dispute resolution through arbitration called ‘Jirga’, justice and revenge, loyalty, defence of the honour of women and the weak, kindness, and defence of the land.
Born in Afghanistan's Paktika province in his family house, Saifullah Suleimanzai completed his higher study in Kabul. While studying at the university, he developed feelings for Banou, an intelligent and attractive woman pursuing a bachelors in biology.
Banou belonged to a wealthy, Persian-speaking family of the Herat province. Unlike Saifullah, she was an ethnic Tajik. Being rich, brainy, and beautiful, she had a long queue of suitors, which included members of the aristocratic elite, doctors, engineers, and academics, many of whom had settled in the West and could each provide her with a luxurious lifestyle in a much more secure environment.
Instead, Banou gave her heart to a poet, married him against the wishes of her family, and decided to settle in life as a homemaker in the most dangerous place on the globe.
Saifullah adored his wife. They had two children: Warda and her brother Mustafa, who was five years older.
With access to appropriate medical facilities, a cosy house, and decent schooling for his children, Saifullah led a reasonably comfortable life; he taught contemporary literature at Kabul University and wrote poetry.