My parents were very educated so they wanted me to go to school. But when I was around 10, school in Afghanistan was stopped because of the war. My neighbourhood was in a war zone, and there was always the noise of guns and bombs. We hid ourselves in basements so we didn’t get hurt by blasts or shattering window glass. My parents would come home and say this neighbour died or that neighbour lost his hands or that neighbour had his head cut off. It was horrible.
I wasn’t allowed to go out much . . .