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Kabul Girls Back in School
Listen to this commentary!
By Nishat Kurwa
Of the three million children back in the classroom in Afghanistan, 30 percent
are girls. Youth Radio’s Nishat Kurwa traveled to Kabul to find out how female
students are faring as the educational system rebuilds. The girls she spoke
with asked to be identified by their first names only. Here are some of their
stories.
NISHAT
18-year-old Pikea went back to school after her family got a knock on the door.
PIKEA (on tape)
My mom asked me who it was and I told her, it was a teacher and they have built
a school. She was very happy, and she said if the girls in the neighborhood
are going then you can go too.
NISHAT
Post-Taliban Kabul is a city with no organized school system to speak of. Teachers
routinely go door-to-door, recruiting for new girls’ schools that are backed
by an array of sponsors the Afghan government, foreign governments, UNICEF,
National Geographic, and others.
Education is free for all Afghan students. Pikea attends a cheery, light blue
schoolhouse partly funded by the government of Denmark.
It takes 35 dollars a month per student to supply all the basics…uniforms, pens,
books and chairs.
Watching Pikea proudly demonstrate today’s lesson on volcano eruptions, I realize
all the catching up Kabul girls have to do. She’s a teenager, learning what
would be a fourth grade lesson in the U.S.
Pikea looks much older than her 18 years, with a motherly look to her heavyset
face, which is framed by a delicate white headscarf.
Pikea struggled to learn during the Taliban rule. She tried teaching herself
at home from her parents’ books and newspapers, but found it impossible without
the coaching that can only come from a teacher.
Pikea says she feels lucky to be resuming her education where she left off.
Down the hall, some of her classmates are even further behind in their studies.
In this classroom, students range in age from about 12 to 25, all studying the
equivalent of a sixth grade lesson. The older girls here are the ones who fell
dramatically behind under the Taliban.
They look like adults in Fairyland, squeezed into small desks next to their
preteen classmates. But they’re equally enthusiastic, waving their hands to
be called on by the teacher.
Not all Afghan girls went without education during Taliban rule. There were
plenty who carried on with lessons secretly, and others received some schooling
as refugees in neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran. So Kabul University
has a surprising number of women enrolled.
I found Khadija outside in a University courtyard, sitting with friends eating
popcorn. Her brother, sitting nearby, watched amused as I talked with his sister,
and occasionally added his two cents to her replies. Khadija is studying finance,
and she speaks English pretty well, because of her high school education in
Pakistan. She wants to be an accountant for a private business after college.
Most of the girls I talked to said no matter what they do after graduation -medicine,
teaching, even radio broadcasting -- they want to be part of rebuilding their
country. Khadija says the availability of education in Afghanistan was part
of the reason her family returned.
KHADIJA (on tape)
The situation of studying wasn’t good in Pakistan. There was one university
in Pakistan. When our peace come back in Afghanistan, we decided to come back
to our country. It’s better than Pakistan.
NISHAT
Inside the Kabul University library, volunteers are stacking donated books that
have come from all over the world. Science Professor Rahana Poposay is the head
librarian here and she runs a women association on campus.
In her soft-spoken manner, Poposay tells me about the decades she’s spent working
for girls’ education…including the days she taught classes secretly in her home
during Taliban rule. She resumed the classes each time they were broken up.
And she remembers -- after the Taliban was defeated-- girls came back to school
weeping with joy. But now that they’re here, there are complications. Materials
are scarce, and there are obvious safety issues. There have been attacks on
girls’ schools outside of Kabul, and even within the city, some young women
are still scared to come to school.
But there’s a strong movement of women who aren’t giving up, from the university
level, down to grammar school.
Grammar school director Suraya Ebadi says she wants to see Afghans reach the
level of education they enjoyed before the country’s decades of war. And she
says culturally, Afghans want their girls to be educated.
SURAYA (on tape)
For girls not to get an education, that was the Taliban’s own interpretation.
The Taliban didn’t want to teach people the real Koran. Islamically, according
to the Koran, both women and men need to get an education, and they both need
to gain knowledge. Our prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, he taught his
daughter that women are important to society and that they should be educated.
NISHAT
18-year-old Pikea also takes pride in this meeting of religion and Afghan values…
PIKEA (on tape)
If a person doesn’t have an education it’s as if they’re deaf, dumb, and blind.
NISHAT
Pikea goes on to recite a metaphor. Its beauty is lost in translation, but its
idea is simple that knowledge is an ocean, and a few drops just aren’t enough.
- “Back To School In Kabul” was produced by Youth Radio's International
Desk, in association with National
Geographic.
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