Mariam
SEPTEMBER 1997his hospital no longer treats women," the guard barked. He was standing at the top of
the stairs, looking down icily on the crowd gathered in front of Malalai Hospital.
A loud groan rose from the crowd.
"But this is a women's hospital!" a woman shouted behind Mariam. Cries of approval
followed this.
Mariam shifted Aziza from one arm to the other. With her free arm, she supported Laila,
who was moaning, and had her own arm flung around Rasheed's neck.
"Not anymore," the Talib said.
"My wife is having a baby!" a heavyset man yelled. "Would you have her give birth here
on the street, brother?"
Mariam had heard the announcement, in January of that year, that men and women would
be seen in different hospitals, that all female staff would be discharged from Kabul's
hospitals and sent to work in one central facility. No one had believed it, and the Taliban
hadn't enforced the policy. Until now.
"What about Ali Abaci Hospital?" another man cried.
The guard shook his head.
"Wazir Akbar Khan?"
"Men only," he said.
"What are we supposed to do?"
"Go to Rabia Balkhi," the guard said.
A young woman pushed forward, said she had already been there. They had no clean
water, she said, no oxygen, no medications, no electricity. "There is nothing there."
"That's where you go," the guard said.
There were more groans and cries, an insult or two. Someone threw a rock.
The Talib lifted his Kalashnikov and fired rounds into the air. Another Talib behind him
brandished a whip.
The crowd dispersed quickly.
The waiting room at Rabia Balkhi was teeming with women in burqas and their children.
The air stank of sweat and unwashed bodies, of feet, urine, cigarette smoke, and antiseptic.
Beneath the idle ceiling fan, children chased each other, hopping over the stretched out legs
of dozing fathers.
Mariam helped Laila sit against a wall from which patches of plaster shaped like foreign
countries had slid off Laila rocked back and forth, hands pressing against her belly.
"I'll get you seen, Laila jo. I promise."
"Be quick," said Rasheed.
Before the registration window was a horde of women, shoving and pushing against each