by Fatimah*
Since childhood, I have been in love with riding bicycles 🚲💙. My father always supported me and bought me my first bicycle for my 4th birthday 🎂🎁. My mother says that the day I was given my own bicycle, I learned to ride quickly and easily.
But I fell many times 🤕 and injured myself before I learned to ride well. I used to go to the store 🏪, school 🏫, and other places by bicycle 🚲. When I was 11 years old, I even started teaching my friends and classmates how to ride. That was a job I would have really loved to have 💭💖. I put a lot of effort into motivating girls in my community to ride bicycles 🚴♀️🚴♀️ if they loved it and not to be afraid of anything 💪.
When the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan 🇦🇫, all of these activities crumbled 💔 into a dream that no longer exists.
I so wish that one day, I can ride a bicycle again 🚲 with my friends in the streets of our hometown 🏘️.
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*Fatimah is a pseudonym.