Maryam (alias name) is one of these girls whom have been victims of nonsensical traditions. She was still small when she was forced into a marriage while her family was living in Iran. Her family married her to a man who and whose family they did not know well. At the time of the marriage, she was only 13 years old. Maryam also did not know anything about her future husband. She says: “that marriage was the start of my unhappiness; I became deeply saddened when I learned that my husband was addicted to narcotics, but it was too late for me to make any decision.”

After a short period of wedding celebration, Maryam’s family returned to Afghanistan and left her in Iran. But in Iran, Maryam’s relation with her husband and his family deteriorated day by day, and they did not refrain from any type of inhuman violence to Maryam. Moreover, her life with a drug-addicted husband also turned her to drug addiction and the life of this young couple were getting worse. In addition, Maryam’s husband would do anything for drugs, even forcing her into prostitution. As a result, the family life of this young couple did not continue on for more than very few years. During that period, she gave births two children. Then Maryam, after enduring much misery, along with one of her children escaped to Afghanistan and joined to her father’s family. But she was already an addict who continued to use narcotics, which destroyed her parental family’s discipline as well.

Since she and her family were illiterate, they never got the opportunity to obtain education. Maryam believes that the main cause of all the hardships of hers and her family’s were due to the lack of educational opportunity during migration in Iran and after returning to Afghanistan. In addition, the poor economic condition of her family also added to the miseries. Furthermore, due to the lack of information and education, they did not know how to treat Maryam’s addiction.

On the other hand, some literacy courses were established in the western part of Kabul where Masuma(alias name), the sister of Maryam, lived. These courses were established by the Afghan National Association for Adult Education (ANAFAE), and founded by WHH. The beneficiaries of these courses are mainly those who returned from neighboring countries like Iran and Pakistan. Masuma admitted herself into one of these courses, despite that she had to look after her children and served at home. She successfully attended and continued with the literacy course. The course curriculum, besides focusing on learning to read and write, also taught topics pertaining to personal hygiene and civic education.

Masuma, improving her life through learning the literacy courses and understanding the importance of physical and mental health, remembered her sister Maryam. By using knowledge gained from the literacy course as well as consultation she had with Ms. Benafsha Sadat, the ANAFAE literacy program manager, she came up with an idea to treat her addicted sister.

Finally, Masuma shared this idea with her sister Maryam, and encouraged her to leave the addiction behind. Maryam agreed. Then Masuma sold her jewelries and sent Maryam to an addiction-treatment hospital. At the same time, in addition to hospital care, she took care of her sister. After completion of the treatment process in hospital, Maryam recovered mentally.  So according to Masuma, the literacy courses run by ANAFAE brought to the learners the awareness of various subjects, and because of her new awareness she was able to recover the life and brighten the future of her drug-addicted sister.