love and war in afghanistan group 1

I thought Gulbuddin's story was very sad but interesting. When he was not even a year old, his father was killed probably by people that were allied wiht the mujahadin. After that, 23 more people in his family were killed by the Soviets all at one time. Since him and his family had no where to go, they decided to flee to Pakistan. At a very young age, Gulbuddin and his sister, Malaliy had to beg for money, and their mother worked wherever possible. They were cold at night, and they usually had to sleep without blankets. Gulbuddin first tried to go to work at the age of seven. He started doing housekeeping at first, and he got about 15 cents a day. He got regular meals every day, so he started to grow more. Then, he started working for Hafizullah Khan, a shopkeeper, and he eventually treated Gulbuddin like a son. He saved up money to buy his sister a sewing machine, and she became a tailor and made money that way. He got married around the age of 12, which was unusual, and he had a house and a son by the age of 15. Shortly after this, they decided to move back to Afghanistan. Their home town had been completely destroyed. They decided to make a big house, and Gulbuddin soon got a new job. His new job was to travel across his district and force people to obey Taliban laws. Men had to keep hair and beards cut at a certain length. Women had to wear burqas. Nobody liked the Taliban officails. These officials often beat and murdered numerous amounts of people. Once, he came across a little boy, named Jalil. Jalil reminded Gulbuddin of himself when he was a young boy. Gulbiddin was in the same situation that Jalil was in at his age. So, Gulbiddin decided to save Jalil's life. Soon after this happened, he witnessed Taliban officials murder a bunch of innocent people at an airport. Gulbuddin started to loosen up his rules, and he left the Taliban soon after.

I did not know much about the Taliban before. I couldn't believe some of the brutal things they do to the Afghan people. It seems like the Afghan people could be beat or murdered for just about anything they do.