The Straggler Defenders

A TRUE STORY

of Dispersion of Afghan National Army Soldiers

I wondered and questioned how they managed teave their families and run away. But the answers are sad. They were soldiers who had not seen their families, wives, and children for many months, even more than a year; this is because their service and military positions were far away from where their families lived, and they often did not have the financial means to go to their cities and visit their families. Their great art was to have military jobs and send money to their wives and children.

I laughed and told the soldier it was better to stop using Nas as much as possible. Nevertheless, some villager children were looking at the sol- diers of the Afghan National Army from behind closed bars, insulting and cursing them. They were calling them Cowards, Traitors, and Deserters. My eyes are tied to the eyes of Mujib and Azadeh's father, and tears flow from both of our eyes; this was not something simple. It was the issue that the national defenders of a developing country were displaced. Each of them had stories, and their stories are bitter narratives that I called the story of these soldiers Straggler or Displaced Defenders, defenders who no longer have a homeland- Zahra Mushtaq