Mina Walking

Education is a human right that years of war in Afghanistan have reduced to a privilege. Scores of poverty stricken youth have no understanding of what it means to learn something beyond the basic street hustling skills needed for begging, selling, or pickpocketing. This is the result of the decade-long fighting that has left the country destabilized and its people physically and mentally crippled. For children like Mina, the ousting of the Taliban does not signify freedom, but a newfound responsibility to enter the workforce in order to support their families. With women no longer prisoners of their home, Mina wanders the streets of Kabul paddling cheap trinkets to government workers and foreigners hoping to secure enough money to feed her Alzheimer stricken grandfather and her heroin addicted father. Relying on Mina's income to fuel his addiction and her presence to nurse her grandfather, Omar, Mina's father forbids her to attend school. But Mina is an impulsive twelve-year-old and witnessing the country's nascent emancipation inspires her to neglect her father's orders and secretly attend classes in her local school. Over the course of the seven days that lead up to Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power, Mina's decision to secretly educate herself instead of looking after her senile grandfather sets in motion a chain of events that change her life forever.