We eat soil, but we do not give up our land. A tale from the late Ahmad Shah Massoud

We eat soil, but we do not give up our land. A tale from the late Ahmad Shah Massoud I never cried, because if I cried, I would lose Afghanistan. But once, I could not hold back my tears. There was a time when we were under severe pressure from the enemy and were surviving without food or warm clothing. One day, I went outside the camp and saw a woman holding a child in her arms. The child climbed down from his mother’s embrace and walked toward a bush. He pulled out some grass and began eating its roots, still covered with soil. I feared that the mother would shout at me and say, “Shame on you, Massoud, for these wars of yours.” But instead, the mother said to her child: “Eat, my son, it does not matter. We eat soil, but we do not give up our land.” Involuntarily, tears flowed from my eyes. I cried bitterly…