Living a man’s life

Nature is all about the survival of the fittest; if you want to survive then you have to adapt to every situation even disguise yourself as a man to stay alive. Yes, that is what Nadia Gulam of Afghanistan did to support her family. She was born in Kabul which follows the Taliban regime. In 1993 a bomb was dropped on her house which killed her brother and she was severely injured. That incident permanently disfigured her face and she slipped into a coma for six months. After that when she came to her senses she realized that to support her family including her mother and younger sisters; she has to work. But the Taliban regime doesn’t allow women to work. Nadia dressed as a man and took the identity of her dead brother in order to become the bread earner of the family. She worked for 10-years and continued her life as a man. Nadia then one day came in contact with an NGO that brought her to Catalonia where she can live freely. She shared her story with the help of a journalist Agnes Rotger through the novel “The Secret Of My Turban”. In 2010 the book achieved national and critical acclamation and received the prestigious Prudenci Bertrana prize. She has published two more novels namely, ‘Tales That Healed Me’ and ‘The First Star of the Night’; the former is a compilation of the stories her mother used to tell her when she was recovering from her injuries after the bomb strike. The latter novel is also based on real-life stories of Afghan women who are fighters.