Schools for girls come out of shadows

[GAP]

Schools for girls come out of shadows
OAKLAND ROSS / TORONTO STAR January 21, 2007 KABUL
Article Link

Grade 9 students in the Parwan-e-dou section of Kabul crowd into a tiny classroom at a school for girls and women denied an education during the Taliban regime. Afghanistan | The brave teachers who defied Taliban edicts have a new challenge – finding the necessary resources to educate vast numbers of young women who crave the schooling that was forbidden by the clerics. By Oakland Ross

Any day that the thought police don't come around to thrash her with a steel cable counts as a good day for Gulghota Hashimi.

"When the Taliban came, they beat me up," says the soft-spoken but evidently iron-willed mother of two young sons. "My boys were screaming and crying."

Hashimi is referring to the cabal of fundamentalist clerics and their acolytes who tyrannized this country from 1996 till 2001, especially the dunderhead thugs from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue who patrolled the streets here, ensuring that men wore beards, women wore burqas, no kites flew and nary a girl attended school.

But Hashimi is a teacher.

She taught prior to the dark days of the Taliban. She continued to teach, albeit clandestinely, even after the Taliban came to power and promptly outlawed formal education for girls. And she teaches now.

In fact, she is a principal – and not just any principal.

The school Hashimi now runs was set up to provide an education to the girls and women who could not go to school while the Taliban regime was imposing its stern and suffocating rule.

The school occupies a two-storey, yellow-stucco house in the Parwan-e-dou section of the capital, employs 20 teachers and daily attends to the dreams and ambitions of 263 girls and women, ranging in age from 13 to 35.

"This year, we have our first class of 11th-
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[Exarecr]

Here's a story of a good event occurring and why Canadian soldiers are putting their lives on the line,so wheres the CBC. They are so quick to criticize military involvement when combat deaths occur and then demonize the Army for doing its job,yet here is a success story that probably wont see the air waves.

 

[westie048]

It is sad but true, happy stories don't sell, but stories of deaths do, there are not many stories about the good that we are doing over there so this is a nice thing to see.





:skull:

 

[youravatar]

The Star always puts out articles like this. Good on them!

 

[JackD]

I know it smacks of opportunism, but could not the units in the Canadian armed forces adopt schools, institutes etc in Afghanistan and perhaps some other regions in the world - something like a mess fee albeit voluntary? It would be good PR and a helpful thing to do - and help make connections between the Canadian soldier and the local people. It wouldn't cost much, the administration could even be done by organizations such as "Save the Children's" , UNICEF, whatever but the PR possibilities for the Armed Forces by doing something such as this would be tremendous. This incidentally, was something I proposed way back in the 70's....

 

[baudspeed]

A small note of caution on the whole 'adopting of schools' is that as soon as NATO, canada or USA waves its flag over the project, it appears that they are receiving a 'western education' regardless of who is actually teaching or creating course material. It might be difficult to convince those who have anti western sentiment, but want to send their children to get an education, to commit to going to a 'western school', as opposed to a home grown school that teaches the same material.

 

[JackD]

Yes that's true, but the adopt a school idea need not be advertised as such in Afghanistan (no waving of flags in other words - as doing so is counterproductive ("This is not done for us, these imperialistic foreigners are doing this to makes themselves look good") ) - although a concept of 'twinning' schools in Afghanistan with schools in Canada has merit and should be done and - quietly - advertised - if you could convince schools within Canada to do such things. Where the quiet advertisement of such projects as Canadian Armed Forces units adopting schools needs to be done - if they would do so - is in Canada - especially in regard to the NDP attitude towards the Armed Forces - winning the hearts and minds campaign in Canada - think of it this way - some comment is being made about those 'baby killers collectively called The Canadian Armed Forces', and Mr. H. set the record straight and then quietly mentions "By the way, units within the Canadian Armed Forces have voluntarily a project of adopting schools in Afghanistan, (in Haiti (etc)) and have done so for years" . Would that not take some wind out some critic's sails?