r/interestingasfuck • u/Key_Skirt_1858 • 20h ago
This Afghan father traveled 2 miles every day for over 7 years to take his daughters to school, waiting outside for hours until they finished.
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u/Doctor_Saved 20h ago
2 miles? Couldn't he just go back home and then come back?
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u/SuQ_mud 20h ago
Probably to save gas or to be protection for his daughters:3
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u/dwittherford69 20h ago
The latter
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u/letsreset 19h ago
oh...fuck. you know, that puts this story into a lot more perspective. it's not the distance, it's the implication of if he weren't there.
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u/WildTurquilameister 19h ago
It’s the implication
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u/daCub182 18h ago
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u/SandwichHonest1494 18h ago
Huge fan of IASIP. Not a huge fan of people being legit so far removed from human connection they joke about this man's daughters getting raped if he wasn't there. I'm all for offensive jokes, this just really doesn't hit the mark though. We're so far removed from our fellow man (and woman) people will do anything in an attempt to get those sweet sweet upvotes
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u/New-Independent-1481 17h ago edited 15h ago
Not raped, but murdered. The Taliban were responsible for many bombings and shootings at girls schools over the years. They would rather kill thousands of children than allow the risk of their property gaining any education.
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u/daitoszooted 16h ago
buddy has to climb out from under the rock you lives under, he joked abt the reference of the phrase, not the situation at hand, its pretty evident the majority of people dont see it to be a joking matter
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u/wickanCrow 19h ago edited 19h ago
Are we not assuming too much may be? I understand there is shit happening but is it all the time every time. The country does have schools and educated women and establishments with a lot of history. My experience has been that media always shows the worst but does not portray the norm.
Like the quote even says women grow up and function in the society in these roles.
"He hoped they would eventually become educated professionals, especially doctors, and encouraged other families to send their daughters to school."
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u/Gardez_geekin 19h ago
That was during the time of GIROA. Women have less than zero rights under the Taliban.
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u/Bruce-7892 19h ago edited 19h ago
Beat me to it. I was in Kabul in 2018 and then women had jobs, wore Western clothing if they wanted to and were members of society just like they'd be anywhere else. There is a reason people were dying trying to get the F out of there when the US left and it was clear the Taliban was back in charge. Not just Women; Afghan Army soldiers were taking off their uniforms and bailing. The president even fled.
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u/Biscuits4u2 19h ago
Yeah he wanted to watch out for them because girls who go to school are in danger of being killed.
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u/CarolineTurpentine 16h ago
Considering that under taliban rule women are nit allowed an education or to travel without their father/husband/brother it's a safe bet that he's already risking a lot by allowing them an education, there's a non zero chance that if they were caught they would be severely punished.
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u/foolishtigger 18h ago
That bike gets 50+mpg. Wtf you talk about save gas? 2mph is like half walking speed
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u/Commercial_Bird8467 18h ago
Doesnt matter, he dad'ed the best way he knew how and accomplished it. Amazing man.
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u/RunExisting4050 18h ago
Hes probably waiting to make sure theyre safe. There are people in his community that think girls getting educated should be raped and stoned.
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u/K4k4shi 20h ago
Its 7 miles / 12km
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u/Crooked_star 20h ago
Also it's not like he's traveling on some paved suburban road.
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u/bellboy718 19h ago
It was uphill both ways
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u/Gardez_geekin 19h ago edited 18h ago
No, but it was unpaved, frequently washed out, covered with IEDs, and the site of firefights.
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u/Narf234 19h ago
It’s Afghanistan dude. Don’t you think the girls could walk 2 miles if they could do so safely?
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u/subs_on_a_sailboat 18h ago
My country relentlessly bombed Afghanistan for 40 years so girls could walk to school safely.
Are you insinuating that we failed? Prepare for more boms
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u/SpecialistCut7101 17h ago
That was one of the lines they told us wasn’t it
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u/subs_on_a_sailboat 16h ago
They told us a lot of things. Healthcare is communism after all.
Nod, nod.
Nodnodnod nod.
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u/s0ciety_a5under 19h ago
2 miles on winding mountainous dirt roads is not a fast or easy trip in that country.
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u/Gattsuga 20h ago
lol don't most parents who drive their kids to school do this? I personally drive close to 4 miles a day one way..
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u/cans-of-swine 19h ago
That's interesting as fuck. I'm gonna make a post about you.
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u/ussrname1312 19h ago
Do you also wait outside their school the whole day?
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u/bb85 19h ago
I think in most places it’s frowned on for an adult to hang around outside a school.
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u/ussrname1312 19h ago
Right, but that’s part of what makes the post more interesting than just "drove his kids to school."
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u/browsinbowser 19h ago
The school was 4 hours a day, it's probably one of those half day schools where they switch - so that more students can be taught by a limited amount of teachers. And they were driving from one village to another
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u/ussrname1312 19h ago
He also drove 7km, not 2 miles, and made the decision to send his daughters to school in a very conservative area over sending his sons to school, since he had to choose between them.
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u/_dont_do_it_ 19h ago
4 miles!? That’s like twice as far as this guy.
I think you should post a pic and make yourself a highly successful post.3
u/tussentweewindmolen 14h ago
Are your kids at risk of being murdered by the Taliban or their supporters because they're girls going to school? You really didn't apply any critical thinking here.
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u/App10032 18h ago
Do you live in Afghanistan or a suburb in the west with good infrastructure?
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u/Alternative-Feed3613 20h ago
My dad walked 15 miles in the snow and it was uphill both ways.
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u/Jazzlike-Lunch5390 20h ago
Without boots.
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u/EntrepreneurFunny306 19h ago
Without pants. He was the only child because of this.
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u/Mermaid_Martini 14h ago
Ok my parents used that “uphill both ways” line a lot and I always thought that’s not even possible. Now I live in San Francisco, don’t drive and my closest supermarket is literally uphill both ways. I can’t wait to tell my grandchildren about my brave journey 😆
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u/Key_Skirt_1858 20h ago
Mia Khan, a father from Afghanistan’s Paktika province, spent seven years taking his three daughters to school by motorcycle, traveling about 12 km each day and waiting four hours outside while they studied. Despite being poor and unable to afford schooling for all his children, he chose to prioritize his daughters’ education. He hoped they would eventually become educated professionals, especially doctors, and encouraged other families to send their daughters to school.
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u/sdjopjfasdfoisajnva 20h ago
well last time i checked 12km is not 2 miles, so???
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u/MGJohn-117 19h ago
Yeah even if that's round trip, then one-way is still 3.7 miles. 12 km makes this an actually interesting post.
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u/Cheese_Ly 20h ago
The articles from 2009 so when the talaban wasn’t in control of Afghanistan, no wonder women could go to school
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u/springtime 18h ago
The article is dated August 24, 2019, not 2009.
The Taliban came back into power August 2021, making their story heart breaking. The parents were hoping for their daughters to become doctors for their poor region
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u/reddaktd 20h ago
Even if it was just one mile. This man was keeping his girls safe. My hat goes off to him. Afghanistan doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation for educating its females
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u/Amonamission 20h ago
That’s heartbreaking considering that the Taliban treats women worse than property.
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u/Later-Dog 15h ago
…2 miles? On a motorcycle? In what looks like rural Afghanistan? Even at 15 mph, we’re talking about an 8 minute drive?
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u/slowcheetah91 11h ago
There are some truly out of touch westerners in here lol.
He drove them and stayed at the school because those countries girls get kidnapped and killed for trying to get an education.
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u/sucksLess 18h ago
may his goodness be rewarded;
may he and family never fall prey to Taliban or other retrogrades
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u/DatGreenGuy 12h ago
How does he effort a family of 5 while he is standing under the school every day for 7 years?
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u/Sudden_Sentence_8534 12h ago
Now THAT'S a father. I hope his daughters do him proud!
On a side note, given the useless arguments in the arguments, sounds like this guy should have taken a lot of these Redditors to school as well!!
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u/lockerno177 13h ago
see. its not the religion thats bad. its the indecent people from any faith or nationality that do bad deeds.
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u/slowcheetah91 11h ago
He stayed outside to make sure no one from his religion came and killed all the girls for getting an education
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u/Zealousideal_Exit284 11h ago
the religion itself calls for women to have a right to education by the way.
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u/peter-bone 12h ago
2 miles on a motorbike doesn't seem that bad. Probably look about 20 minutes in that terrain. Why wait there all day? To save fuel?
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u/Impressive-Top8992 19h ago
How do they money if the father is waiting outside the school all day?
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u/browsinbowser 18h ago edited 15h ago
The mother was working as a janitor as a hospital, she wanted her daughters to grow up to be like the female doctors she saw there. It was both the parents pushing for education, also the father was medically disabled as in he had some injury that made him unable to work.
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u/nikulmmadhu 20h ago
people in the comments act like hes living in the usa or something. this is afghanistan which has rough terrain and bad roads where the taliban have banned education for girls . i mean are people here really this dumb or are most of them just trolls?
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u/Key_Skirt_1858 20h ago
He traveled 7 miles, not 2. Sorry.
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u/benny_adam 20h ago
People developed non war torn countries think it takes him the same 12km it takes them.
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u/Ta-veren- 19h ago
2 miles on a dirt bike? Am I missing something
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u/IndependentBig7050 17h ago
It doesn't take a genius to realize elevations, women rights, shit motorbikes, infrastructures, war, etc. plays a major role here. The school can be right across the street from him and I'll still admire people that have the balls to let their daughters go to school in countries like this. Keyboard warriors these days don't realize not everyone is as lucky as them. Most people don't have what we have here in the west. It's really not that hard to understand this buddy.
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u/User-830733 20h ago
Educating girls is illegal there so he could have been beheaded, but lets focus on how short the ride was. Not to mention that society is against it but he did not just go along.
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u/UglyMcFugly 19h ago
The article was from 2019 which was 2 years before the Taliban regained control. I'm guessing the daughters were forced to stop school shortly after that. And now those bright young people are probably trapped in a burqa and not allowed to speak in public.
The article did say the other villagers (conservative rural area) were judgmental of him at first but after awhile they learned to respect what he was doing. Helping to erase backward attitudes one dedicated father at a time. Only for some power-hungry assholes to swoop in and destroy that progress they were making.
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u/Aberfrog 2h ago
When I worked in a museum in the early 2000s our head guard was an Afghan guy who came to Austria in the 80s during the first Afghan war. He had three daughters and he made it possible for them to go study and become a doctor, an engineer and a linguist.
It was so funny in a way to see him talk about that. Cause he knew that them being educated opened the world to them but it also made them leave the house early (before being married) and he loved the first thing but didn’t like the second. But accepted it as the price he had to pay so that his daughters had a good life.
I really liked him for that. Very devout Muslim, very traditional who always wanted to go back or at least be buried in the mountains he talked so much about.
I have no idea where he is now, but I hope you are well
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u/Impossible-Spare-116 20h ago
Most unimpressive headline ever
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u/CPTKickass 20h ago edited 19h ago
*…traveled for miles with no roads and waited there all day to make sure his daughters weren’t killed for the audacity of attending school*
There fixed it for you
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u/OtherCow2841 15h ago
That was in Afghanistan. Women have hardly any rights there. He probably had to wait in order to protect them
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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 20h ago edited 20h ago
“Man travels a normal distance to drive his daughters to school and waits for hours instead of driving 5 minutes home.”
I’m sure there’s much more to it, and it’s an impressive feat. OP just butchered the fuck out of the title.
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u/browsinbowser 19h ago edited 18h ago
OP got it wrong, it was like 12km if you count there and back and fuel was expensive and schools were being targeted.
They were some of the only girls from their village and their dad had grown up in some nomad tribe and both parents hadn't gotten an education themselves.
Article is from 2019*.
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u/springtime 18h ago
Article is from 2019: published December 24, 2019.
In the article he said, he's been doing this since 7 years. (Two daughters were in 7th grade at that time)
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u/browsinbowser 18h ago
I misread the date, my bad. I found more articles
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u/springtime 18h ago
Thank you, I was wondering why some people said the article would be from 2009.
Kudos for the father to provide his daughters with an education in such a conservative environment. It's the more heartbreaking to see where the country is today and how badly girls and women are treated now. The parents had put so much hope into their girls.
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u/FunnyAd9329 19h ago
Why wait for hours for them to finish? On a bike 2 miles is doable in like a few minutes just go back home after and do something else. Good thing he's educating his kids though hope he left the country now
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u/Defiant_Trifle1122 17h ago
Because his daughters are at risk of being killed for being in school. He stayed there to protect them.
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u/adoodle83 18h ago
wear and tear on the bike, which will increase maintenance costs. Additionally fuel costs. it might cost this man a days worth of labour to purchase the petrol needed to cover the 4 mile daily trek.
fuel is not cheap in most parts of the world.
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u/Emergency-Lemon2825 20h ago
Yeah and now none of them can go to school. How great fundamental Islam is
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u/browsinbowser 19h ago edited 18h ago
This was from 2019*, hopefully the whole family left the country.
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u/ByteHavenGames 17h ago
I doubt uneducated parents from nomad tribes living in some poor village could leave the country...
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u/browsinbowser 17h ago
didnt thousands flee to pakistan? Thats why threats were being exchanged between the 2 countries. And many have been deported from pakistan, even the ones that were there decades ago
their names,faces, and area was publicized so hopefully the swedish charity or the americans got them out of there- if not to a western country than a safe country like Turkey. The Taliban likes to make examples of girls and women that make the news
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u/TheAkolo 13h ago
This is not about Islam. Islam calls both men and women to be educated. This is about taliban, who pulls the name of Islam to hide their atrocities under it. Hate Taliban, not Islam.
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u/Substantial_Cake8985 19h ago
What does Islam have to do with this. Islam says education is important for both male and females. The first university was created by a Muslim who was a woman. If a cristain says that he is gonna blow up a church and not let women have school and says he is doing it for his religion does that mean Christianity 100% said so. No it doesn't. if me a Muslim says im being gay for Islam does that mean Islam says to be gay? Im not being discriminatory here or hate but pls use ur braincells.
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u/Emergency-Lemon2825 19h ago
If it did why do they not allow women to to be educated?
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u/Ali_SSZip 19h ago
there's no anything in Qur'an or hadith saying women can't get education
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u/Substantial_Cake8985 19h ago
If talib@n is doing something bad and saying ther doing for islam, it doesn't mean its true. They can lie and decive my guy. look at the Quran and people for the time if u want to find out about Islam. not all Muslims actually follow Islam fully.
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u/historyeeter 15h ago
This is years old when NATO was in Afghanistan, today girl can't go to school.
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u/Former_Suspect3680 19h ago
thats not just a commute, that's seven years of showing up for their future.
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u/Redacted_dact 19h ago
2 miles is pretty reasonable. Google says 8-12 minutes on a bike.
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u/Gardez_geekin 19h ago
Did you have the active war zone filter on?
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u/RevolutionPlenty20 17h ago
mountainous and rocky with poor infrastructure and no/damaged roads and paths as well
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u/SeaMacaron4602 19h ago
Is this latest news? Cuz i read somewhere that taliban doesn’t allow females to study
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u/browsinbowser 19h ago edited 18h ago
No its from 2019,
Here is the article Op linked later. And here is another article with more pictures of the family, from facebook and the swedish charity that set up schools.
The oldest daughters would be 20? now, hopefully they safely made it out of afghanistan 4-5years ago.
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u/Candlelit_Chaos 18h ago
Now this is a very good man and father, especially given their more difficult environment. I commend him for his dedication and hope that they are all very blessed because of it.
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u/TheSixInch 17h ago
Hats off to that reliable bike.
Respect to the father.
Congratulations to the daughters to have a great father.
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u/White0ut 16h ago
Guy takes skids to school 2 miles away. OPs mind is blown. That's like a 5 minute ride on that bike.
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u/Independent-Story883 6h ago
What a good daddy!!!!!
Educating his girls.
Guaranteeing their safety!!!
Uh There ARE good men out there. Everywhere. Of every faith. I love this
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u/DennisDEX 5h ago
As someone who used to drive my wife 100km to work and back home 100km and do it again in the evening to bring her home, I feel this man deeply.
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u/PriestPlaything 9h ago
I mean, in the picture they’re on a vehicle. So it took him what, 2-5mins of travel time? I can’t find the heartbreaking story here. For years father drives kids to school? Ok? What am I missing?
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u/cd121415 18h ago
Dude took at 9 minute bike ride each way. Fathers of the year.
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u/ShamshirMirza 19h ago
Greeting and blessings to our dear Afghan brothers and sisters.
May you always be blessed.
A nation of hardworking and decent folk.
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u/sowich4 19h ago edited 9h ago
This is a picture of a man with three younger women on the back of a motorcycle. There’s nothing else about this post that we should assume is true.
If what OP said is true, there nothing interesting about traveling 4 miles round trip to bring your kids to school.
Dumb post, downvote.
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u/knightsofgel 16h ago
I live in a developed country and walk more than that everyday to work lol
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u/EstablishmentNo3469 14h ago
Sure, and whats your chance of getting killed during those walks? Girls in school probably isnt very common there
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u/Weird_Ad_1398 12h ago
I think it's common up until a certain age, and he's just addressing what's in the title.
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u/Cheese_Ly 20h ago
This is from 2009 when the Taliban were not in control of Afghanistan now they are in control of Afghanistan. Females cannot have an education.
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u/blim9999 19h ago
Where's his AK-47?
I'm somewhat serious. if I needed to protect my daughters in Afghanistan, I want to be packing heat. In any case, good man.
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u/EnjayDutoit 6h ago
And now the Dark Age Pedophiles who took over the country have banned girls from going to school. Heartbreaking.
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u/LukeyLeukocyte 20h ago
Great guy I am sure, but 2 miles on a motorcycle is like...4 minutes. Is there something missing from the post?
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u/myflesh 20h ago
Op did the math wrong he traveled almost 8 miles. And it school was only 4 hours and he was doing it for a mix of poverty (driving back home and back is more expensive) and also protect from people mad that women are going to school.