Nangarhar university dormitory buildings remain unchanged

By: Habib Sangar

Monterey CA

The university itself is located right across the Kabul river to the left and Kabul - Jalalabad highway to the right. This is one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever been to. The natural and ragged beauty surrounding this area has its own distinct attributes that would be hardly found elsewhere. Only a mile or so towards the west, there is the end tail of popular Black mountain, while the spectacular view of White mountain, even though it’s laid hundreds of miles to the south, can be enjoyed from the every corners of the campus. The Darunta electrical dam, which electrifies Jalalabad city, and including this beautiful campus, has provided an amazing destination for the students as well as for the people to go and enjoy the waterfall as well as the delicious fried fish which is served out there.

However, despite of its natural beauty and attractiveness, the campus establishments and infrastructure have largely remained unchanged since the Taliban collapsed. The building to the right reminds me of one of the furious days I had ever experienced while I was student during the savage regime of Taliban. In the one of the middle rooms on the second floor, a number of my classmates and I were playing cards when we suddenly heard screaming as it was echoed all around the building. As I got out to check who were screaming, I glanced a small group of Taliban were beating whoever they could locate in the building. It was noon-prayer time. As per their rules, we were not supposed to be there at that specific moment. Everyone, including those who wanted to stay and pray at their rooms, should have gone to the near mosque to pray instead. As my heart was bleeding out for those poor students who hadn’t been able to manage escaping those absurd and cruel people, I myself along with other friends were trapped in the middle of nowhere to be saved. Thinking of our options, we either had to submit ourselves to their horsewhip or to jump from the second floor because the exit was already securely blocked so that no one could walk away unpunished. Of course, the way they were brutally beating those innocent students was not something I could bear. Without any further delay, I rushed to the backside of the room and looked down from the window to see if I could jump down. The small elevation that was created as result of wastage thrown by the students in the backside helped us not to get hurt. Even though throwing garbage and trash in such a way was not something that every student would want to do, but presence of different students coming from different part of the countries made it hard for the folks there to avoid doing it, but unfortunately they still do this.

When I touched the ground, for a moment I thought if I had broken my legs. They were both numbed and I couldn’t move them. However, with the help of one of my fellow classmates I could stand up and slowly started running. God knows what would have been our situation if we were fallen to the hands of those careless people. Staying at rooms during prayer time itself was something punishable, but the severity of our punishment would have gotten so high if we were caught playing cards. Playing cards was considered a sign of gambling. We had no passion for gambling nor did we have the money to gamble. Our families only paid us the specific amount of money that we needed to spend on our commuting transportation. Thus, playing cards was the only thing to entertain us.

As this photo came across my way recently, it not only reminded me the dark and sad part of past memory I had encountered 14 years ago as university student, but notice how bad the condition of these buildings are, likewise, has poured more salt on the injuries I, like many other afghans, sustained from these years of conflict and bloodsheds. Despite huge influx of money into the country, it’s indeed very shameful to see these buildings unchanged. Not only this particular one, but also the law school, where I went as a student, has not received any attention yet. More than 200 students of each of the four-year classes utilize the establishments, especially the classrooms that once were not larger enough to accommodate 50 students when I was studying. God knows how these poor students have managed to breathe while they are in class for the lecture. Library and similar resource centers, which are very essential part of universities, are in very dire need of support.  Even though there have been some signs of construction, such as construction of buildings for agriculture, literature school, looking to the historical importance of this university and the potential it still has to offers for training and enhancement afghan capacity, more attention has to be paid to improve and facilitate learning and teaching conditions for the students and professors.