HERAT, AFGHANISTAN | 2016-09-02 | Maryam (46) dazes out after lunch. He only son, 26 year old now, plays with his daughter after he came home from university. Maryam’s engagement to her future-husband only lasted 10 days before her husband and her brother drove over a mine and got killed. In those short 10 days, 19-year-old Maryam had become pregnant. She was tortured by her in-laws to marry one of her brother-in-laws but she refused to and decided to remain single and raise her only son alone. At some point, out of despair, Maryam left her child at an orphanage. Up until six months ago, before the funding ran out and she lost her job, she worked as a midwife in remote districts of Herat.
