Shattering Constraints

Hello, my name is Reha, and I live in Afghanistan.

I come from a wealthy family.
At home, I have my mother, one sister, and two brothers. My eldest brother is named Sultan, and he is the head of the household.

I also have another older brother named Umar, and my youngest sister, Harim, is two years younger than me. My father passed away when I was ten years old, and it has been seven years since that incident.

My father had very traditional views, and my mother is a respectable woman who honored and respected her husband.

In our household, Sultan has the final say on everything, and my mother often does not speak up against him. He insists on carrying on my father's principles and values in our home. There were many restrictions in our house.

For instance, when girls go to college, they need to have a male guardian to drop them off and pick them up. When going shopping or outside, they must be accompanied by their mother, or a guardian. Furthermore, girls are not allowed to pursue their education beyond college; they cannot attend university.

Also, they are prohibited from talking to any men other than their close male relatives, like fathers, uncles, or cousins.

I didn't have a problem with many of these rules, but I did object to one thing: I want to continue my education. I aspire to become a Doctor, and my family does not support this dream.

They told me that I only had one year left in college, and after that, I should stay home. They will not allow me to pursue further studies.
I had a cousin named Salar who was also my classmate at the college where I studied.

We really liked each other and were in love❤️. Our families didn't know about our love, and they didn't even know that we were studying at the same college because there was no relationship between our families.

He was my uncle's son, but I found this out only later My parents and my uncle had a relationship, but I didn't even know that, and neither did Salar. However, we both knew that there had to be some reason why our families were separated for a long time.

Apparently, our families had some kind of conflict between them that led to a rift that lasted for 20 years. For 20 years, our families barely interacted with each other.

Our love continued to blossom. It was summertime 🌅 and one day Salar told me that we wouldn't go to college the next day. He suggested that when the driver dropped me off, I shouldn't go to college. Instead, we would go out somewhere to have ice cream and lunch together. After that, he would drop me off at the college gate, and then I could go home with the driver

.I didn't have a phone because Sultan had said that I could only use a phone when I got engaged or married. He believed that it wasn't appropriate for single girls to use a phone.They say that everything is fair in love, so sometimes I would secretly use my mom's phone to message Salar.

I would also occasionally talk to him on the phone. Hareem and I had separate rooms, so she knew when I was on the phone that I was in love with my cousin Salar. She was the only one I had told about it.

In the morning, I got ready nicely and did a bit of makeup. I really liked makeup and used to wear it daily. Not too much, just a little, but I always did my makeup before heading out. I left for college just as I had promised,
I reached college, and after that, I sat in Salar's car and went with him. We had lunch at a nice restaurant, and after that, we had ice cream. 😋

We enjoyed ourselves a lot that day and talked about many things.

Salar would always say that my eyes are very beautiful and that my complexion is very fair and clear.

I'm not trying to brag about myself, but I was quite pretty.

Anyway, Salar wasn't bad looking either; he was a very handsome guy.

Then it was time for me to leave, and he dropped me off at the college gate. He was watching me from the car as my driver arrived, and I got into the car with her to go home. Salar was still watching me as I left, and then he started his car and drove away. I also reached home and saw my mom talking on the phone.

After changing my clothes, I went to my mom and asked her who she was talking to on the phone. My mom replied that she was looking for a girl for Sultan, and if a good girl is found, she would arrange for their marriage.