For the Love of a Son: One Afghan Woman's Quest for Her Stolen Child

you?’
    He turned on me and snarled, and I saw the
previously polite man had turned into a beast. Then he pushed and
kicked his screaming wife out of my home.
    I was furious. When Khalid came home I rushed
to tell him the story. He was aghast that I had become involved in
such a private matter between husband and wife. ‘Maryam, this is
Saudi Arabia. Men can do what they want when it comes to their
wives and children. No one will interfere. Man makes his own law at
home. It is considered a private matter, even by the security
forces. He can kill her if he likes. No one will protest.’
    I nodded, knowing he was speaking the sad
truth. Although Saudi Arabia is rich and Afghanistan is poor, when
it comes to the treatment of women, the two countries are very
similar. Women are helpless in Saudi Arabia, and women are helpless
in Afghanistan.
    I was awake most of the night, my thoughts
with Sarah. She was living the same nightmare I had once endured,
although her situation was even more dire. At the most dangerous
moments, I had been able to run from Kaiss to my father’s home.
Sarah had no such escape route.
    The next day Sarah surprised me when she came
back to my house and banged on the front door. She was screaming,
with blood running down her body. Her husband ran in behind her. I
moved as fast as a heavily pregnant woman can and grabbed the only
weapon I saw, a big kitchen knife.
    I returned to the living room where that
beast was continuing to beat Sarah. I held up the knife and
screamed: ‘I am calling the police!’
    The air force pilot gave me a glance then
started laughing at the sight of a pregnant woman in a nightgown
holding a long knife over her head. ‘Go on, call the police! I will
dial the number for you! The police chief beats his wife too.’
    I was frightened, but stood my ground.
    ‘This is not America,’ he taunted. ‘Stay away
from my family or I’ll tell your husband to beat you too!’
    Later in the day, Khalid refused to get drawn
in. ‘Please, Maryam. There is absolutely nothing we can do. No one
will tell a husband not to beat his wife. No one. Not even his
wife’s family.’
    Once again, my sad thoughts drifted back to
my own family. My sister and father and aunties and uncles and
cousins had pleaded with me to save my marriage at all costs, even
if it meant I was returning to a life of physical violence and
abject unhappiness.
    What was wrong with the world?
    Khalid pulled me to him. ‘Listen, you are
pregnant. You are about to give birth to our child. This man might
try to harm you. You must stay away from the situation.’
    I wanted to do as my husband asked, but I
could not. The following evening when we went to my mother-in-law’s
house for dinner, I brought up the subject again. I pleaded with my
sisters-in-law to tell their husbands, one of whom knew the police
chief in the city. ‘If you don’t, I will have to do something
myself, even if it means Khalid gets angry with me.’
    To stop me from getting further involved, one
of my brothers-in-law contacted the police chief. The following day
police arrived at my neighbor’s villa. When the police told the air
force pilot that they had received a complaint, he was so furious
he divorced Sarah on the spot as the police watched on. He told her
he never wanted to see her again. Surprisingly, he did allow Sarah
to keep her son, and sent her and Ali to live with her father.
    Before Sarah left the neighbourhood she came
round and hugged me. ‘Thank you Maryam. I will never forget you.
You saved my life.’
    I was happy until Khalid told me Sarah would
not be allowed to keep her son after the age of seven, at which
time Saudi men traditionally take control of a son’s future. But I
reasoned that at least Sarah had him for a few more years. And
anything might happen. Had Sarah remained married to her violent
husband, the man would have killed her for certain. Ali would not
have had a mother.
     

Chapter
XXII
    The Taliban first came to the notice of the
West in 1994. Within two short years they had overrun Afghanistan
and taken over power. In November 1996 the Taliban imposed its own
law, which was based on their interpretation of Sharia law, but
more strict than any imposed anywhere in the Islamic world. Papa
happened to be visiting us in Jeddah at the time, and after reading
the laws in the newspaper, Papa expressed fury, saying that the
Taliban’s interpretation did not agree with accepted Islamic
scholars.
    The basic