I was waiting for the bus, which came 30 minutes late, and while waiting I was observing a young boy who I knew very well. I watched him as he stopped a man on the street and directed him towards the shop. The man went inside the shop and came back, handing him a small box.
I was his mentor when he was just in year 7 and I used to help him with his homework and classwork. But he was now a big Afghan boy...holding a cigarette and with the wrong crowd.
I couldn't stop glaring so I called him over. Surprisingly, he remembered who I was and came in an instant.
"Salaam" he said.
"WalaikumSalaam, yi chi ast? Tu chi mekoni?" I said.
(What is this? What are you doing?)
"Hichiz niyast...its nothing." At this point he hides the cigarette behind his back.
"I'm not blind Ali*, you know this is wrong."
He knows what I'm saying is right so he puts the cigarette in his pocket and lowers his gaze.
He was always like a brother to me, but at that moment I realised he had respect for me as well.
He promised me that it would be his last cigarette and with shame, said bye.
I knew he just said that and that it wasn't going to be his last cigarette, but at that instant, I felt like I had done my duty. I had shown someone the right path and they had agreed with it.
This was just an example of one young boy who had fled Afghanistan and came to London, in search of education, work, peace and freedom. But gradually he became a part of a wrong crowd and suddenly he wasn't who he used to be. I'm telling you this because there are thousands of more Afghan boys like this who have the same start and same end. And it's in the end when they realise how wrong they were.
Afghan boys come to the UK by themselves leaving their family behind in war torn Afghanistan. They think in here they will get the education and the freedom that they don't have back home. But what actually happens is that they start to enjoy life here so much that they forget about the fact that if they don't become educated and get a decent job, then there would be no one to look after their family.
Boys start to join groups of thugs and start taking education for granted. If they come really young, such as 11 or 12 years old, then they may be less likely to be badly influenced, but as soon as they reach their teens, that's when they start becoming useless for their family.
I'm saying this because I have witnessed it. In my secondary school there were many young boys who had left their parents behind and came to London to make a living. But what these boys don't understand is that by becoming part of the wrong crowd and wasting their time, they are actually hurting their family. Because their family are thinking that their sons are gone abroad, they must be studying and becoming an engineer or doctor, but what they don't know is that they are hanging around kebab shops in their little 'Afghan groups'.
It just angers me to see groups of Afghan boys loitering when they could be doing something useful so they could get somewhere in life. However, it would be wrong to say that all Afghan boys do that. Because there are people who I know and have heard stories about, that have come to the UK in a young age, leaving their family behind and have actually studied and become something. That is what every Afghan should do.
I hate it when people take education for granted. If someone has been given the opportunity to study somewhere, where they know they can succeed if they work hard, then they should definitely take advantage of that. There are many Afghans who are given this opportunity. The opportunity to come to the UK to study in peace rather than studying in Afghanistan, where even going to school is a risk to your life.
My belief is that education is the most important thing in life and on top of that, it's free in the UK. (up to a certain age that is). So why are these boys then wasting this opportunity and proving to the world that Afghans are only good at fighting and not education?
I personally feel sorry for their parents and family back home, who are thinking that their sons are working day and night for their happiness and their health.
This is a message to my people. To the people who have been lucky enough to have an opportunity to educate themselves, but have obviously taken it for granted and have gone astray.
If you want Afghanistan to have its own identity not related to war and terror, have its own factories, buildings, decent houses, schools and parks, then my advice is to stop wasting time and educate yourselves. It's never too late.
[Here is an article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8539471.stm I found about the journeys that young Afghan boys take to get to the UK or Europe, in hopes of having a better life.]
* name has been changed.