Triumphant Afghans

The first few Afghan girls whom our Ottawa-CFUW's "study and interest group" (University Women Helping Afghan Women) helped and encouraged have just graduated from the Gawharshad Institute of Higher Education in Kabul, founded five years ago by the indomitable Dr. Sima Samar. Young Afghan women have to overcome what seemed like insuperable obstacles to get to this point––I have been reading Sally Armstrong's* Veiled Threat with horror––but, inspired by people like Dr. Simar, there will be more to follow.

UWHAW has just been sent this picture of the ten girls at their graduation ceremony, holding their certificates, and letters of congratulation from Ottawa. I have just posted it on UWHAW's Facebook page, but for the record I'd also like it to appear here:

Gawharshad has the highest percentage of female students in institutes of higher education in Afghanistan, and its classes are mixed. 

The hat throw! Both photos were sent to UWHAW by Farah Malik

* I heard today that Sally Armstrong has promised to come and meet UWHAW and friends at the group's garden party in June. That will be another occasion worth reporting.

Raising chickens in Afghanistan

Last Thursday Leah Soroka told CFUW Ottawa's University Women Helping Afghan Women about her recent development work in Afghanistan.

Leah (on the right) at the UWHAW meeting,
photo by Jill Moll

“You are never the same when you come back from Afghanistan!” she began. Her boss in Afghanistan was killed by a suicide bomber. 

While developing agricultural supply chains as director of a counter narcotics strategy for regional stability in rural Afghanistan, she advanced the role of Afghan women in agriculture. Her project provided the poor with a means of livelihood (so they would not have time or inclination to participate in “illegal activities”) keeping kitchen gardens, raising chickens and selling over 90% of their produce in the markets. They were instructed in food security and nutrition. Their menfolk appreciated the returns when they took the eggs and vegetables to market and thus saw the point of the women’s endeavours. Literacy and numeracy levels are extremely low, and saving and investing were foreign concepts in this “pocket economy.” Leah described the creative methods used to educate these women. For example, to teach them how to manage their finances, they put eggs into three jars: the first was the “happy jar” containing money for immediate spending on themselves and their families, the contents of the second jar represented the money needed to replace chickens that had died, the third jar represented the amount to be kept aside for chicken feed and other such expenses.

In a recent poll only 20% of women in Afghanistan defined themselves as working people. Leah interviewed 300 women while in the country, finding out what were felt to be their obstacles to work. She asked the UWHAW group what we thought those obstacles might be. Together with Leah we came up with …

• Lack of acceptance by the men.
• Limited access to education and job opportunities.
• The need for security at the workplace.
• A requirement for “cultural conformity”––menfolk sometimes being ashamed of having a working woman in their family.
• In a “country without newspapers,” limited access to information.
• Lack of financial or legal advice.

If a woman becomes widowed and remarries, her children are repossessed by her previous in-laws. Therefore, depending on their permission, or how rich or liberal they are, a young widow cannot remarry without losing access to her children, but she can go to work! The Red Crescent offers such women crafts, livelihoods and places to work.

Practically speaking, all-women initiatives in Afghanistan are harder to establish than when men are involved, although a bid for international funds stands a better chance if women are on the payroll, so all male ventures are not a good idea either. 

We outsiders must take notice of the men of Afghanistan. Many are “tormented, coerced and depressed” because of their traumatic experiences. Some are “pure of heart”. This is a “whole nation suffering from battered-wife syndrome!” but there are multiple truths. Sometimes, for example, corruption itself can lead to good things, such as the establishment of laws for the protection of wealth, even if it is ill-gotten wealth.

Leah thinks that a change in women’s rights in Afghanistan has to be gradual. She reminded us that it has taken a long time for women to achieve equal status with men in Canada, although by now, Canada is a global leader in this regard. If the Afghan men lose face by too much hasty change, that gives a “potential for retribution” in the future. She described a business meeting in conservative Jalalabad where the men sat (on the floor) taking part with vigour and all the women at the meeting stood apart at one side of the room huddled in their shawls, merely observing. In the city of Kabul, though, it is quite different these days, with men and women making equal contributions. 

VIPs in an Ottawa garden

Dr. Samar, The Hon. Flora MacDonald and his Excellency Sham Lall Bathija

I received an email from Dianne R. attaching "some notes" on the people we were going to meet last Wednesday at the UWHAW (University Women Helping Afghan Women) Garden Party, where my job was to co-ordinate the photography. The guest of honour was Dr. Sima Samar, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Among many honours and awards, Dr. Samar is an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, holds an honorary doctorate from Carleton University and has more than once been a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here is an abridged extract from Dianne's notes, to which I've added links.

• Laila Ayan is First Secretary, Embassy of Afghanistan in Canada [who] served in the German Afghan mission at the UN prior to her appointment here.
• Dr.Nipa Banerjee teaches at the U of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies. She [has] led Canada’s aid programs in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Afghanistan.
• His Excellency Sham Lall Bathija Ambassador to Canada from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
• William Crosbie, Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2011.
• Erica Donald presently a medical student at McMaster, is a cellist [who studied] music at McGill University. She has worked with the Youth Orchestra in Afghanistan and continues to support them.
• The Honourable Flora MacDonald served in three cabinet posts including Secretary of State for External Affairs, the first woman in the world to hold that appointment. Since 1988, she has been working for women and girls in Afghanistan as part of the World Federalist Movement.
• Dr. Maisam Najafizada is a physician and now PhD candidate in Health Policy at the University of Ottawa,
• Eileen Olexiuk. A seasoned diplomat, she was the former deputy head of Mission in Afghanistan with extensive experience in the country. In her retirement, she is involved with Afghan causes including Canadian Women for the Women of Afghanistan (CW4WA).
• Maryam Sahar at 15 was an interpreter for a Canadian Army unit and NGOs in Kandahar at great risk to her own life. Later she took advantage of the Afghan Interpreter Immigration Program to seek asylum here. She has provided cultural awareness training for Canadian troops en route to Afghanistan and works with Immigration programs here as a translator while attending Carleton University.
• Roya Shams, a young student rescued from the Taliban by Toronto Star reporters after her father, a senior police commander was assassinated in Kandahar. She presently attends Ashbury and wants to complete her education in Canada, hoping to return to Afghanistan afterwards to help her country.
• Marg Stewart is President of CW4WA in Kingston and Treasurer on the National Board.
• Madeliene Tarasick National President of CW4WA.

On the day, over 100 guests turned up and the rain held off! Half way through the Garden Party, everyone went indoors to hear some speeches. The Ambassador Sham Lall Bathija saluted Dr. Samar and the CFUW for their commitment. In Afghanistan there are now 3 million girls in school. He was proud to say that Afghanistan has met its millennium goal for healthcare, but that “doesn’t mean we should stop here.” He spoke of the value for Afghan students of studying abroad and then going back to serve their country and offered Canada thanks, greetings and love from Afghanistan.

One of our UWHAW members paid tribute to Flora MacDonald who, like Dr. Samar, is a “rescuer”––while acting as the first woman Minister for Foreign Affairs in the world, Flora ensured that 100,000 Vietnam refugees were welcomed to Canada. In her retirement from politics, as initiator of Future Generations Canada she has continued to work on humanitarian projects, such as providing electricity to remote parts of Afghanistan by means of wind and solar power.

The hostess then introduced Dr. Samar, saying how much we were “moved by her unimaginable bravery.” Dr. Samar thanked and greeted us, telling us that Flora MacDonald was her role model. She appreciates people who can bring about changes in the lives of Afghan women. The situation in her country is “much, much better” than it has been and the improvement is due to education, although there are still millions of girls there who do not go to school. Empowerment means having the right to decide one’s own destiny, to have control over what to wear, what to do, what to be, how many children to have. Only 19% of Afghan women have access to contraception. She spoke of a girl UWHAW has been sponsoring, how she had cried when she told Dr. Samar of her impossible dreams of a higher education. Now that dream is after all fulfilled she will no longer have to be a carpet weaver all her life.

Speaking of the recent elections in Afghanistan, Dr. Samar said that the election demonstrates the influence of the international community. All the candidates had come to a human rights conference, which had never happened before. For the first time in history the Afghan people had taken the initiative. When the election is over and the new government takes office “we shall keep them accountable,” she said. Later she repeated that “we shall have to be cautious.” However, it is “impossible” that Afghanistan will now step back to the day of the Taliban. The Commission for Human Rights is now part of the Afghan constitution. Her long term vision is one of equality for all, men and women. Every child has the right to live with dignity, she said.

In answer to a question about the high literacy rates in one particular part of Afghanistan, she said with a smile: that was the area she has assisted. Her first trip to Europe was in 1989 to Norway, when she raised $10,000 for the creation of ten new schools. One school took place under a tree, one in a mosque. Tents were used as classrooms. All the children in this district now go to school.

(Photo © Robin Spencer)

Several young Afghans or students with connections to Afghanistan were at the garden party. Besides wine and strawberries among the roses, we had a silent auction. I actually won something, a framed piece of Afghan embroidery that's now brightening my kitchen wall. Some of the other guests were treated to henna hand painting by two high school students of Ottawa who had collected funds to present to Dr. Samar. Although born in Canada, these girls share an Afghan heritage and know the barriers to education for Afghan girls. They had baked and sold cupcakes, painted people's hands for donations and prepared an Afghan meal for 80 teachers, all to raise funds for their counterparts in Afghanistan.

"They keep calm and do their work."

Dr. Najafizada speaking at last year's UWHAW fundraiser

Maisam Najafizada is working on a thesis about primary health care in the remote communities of Afghanistan.

As the guest speaker at our UWHAW meeting last Thursday, he gave an example of an Afghan Community Health Supervisor, “Shamsia”––not her real name. As a 2nd wife with ten children she had an education up to 9th grade and is the only breadwinner in her family. She first worked as a home-school volunteer for her neighbours, became a vaccinator and identified the sick children in her community, has also been an unpaid mental health counsellor. She trained as a Community Health Worker (CHW) under the BRAC scheme and dispensed medical drugs. She now supervises and trains 16 CHWs at 8 separate posts. Her husband hasn’t allowed her to become a midwife because that would mean her having to leave home for 18 months.

Community Health Workers and their supervisors are a “front line army” of volunteers, approved by the Afghan communities they serve. There are about 10,000 of them (whereas there are only about 2500 doctors in Afghanistan). CHWs educate people about hygiene, treat the prevalent diseases, dispense drugs and contraceptives (they call contraceptive pills “the happiness drug”), visit pregnant women and help prepare for the delivery of their babies. They offer maternal and child healthcare. Men volunteer to be CHWs as well, but only provide services for men.

CHWs are knowledgeable and mobile; they are highly respected locally, but do not receive much recognition from the national authorities (although this may be changing), and they get no pay. Often they serve as vets and / or teachers as well. They tend not to be aware of their own value and lack in self-confidence. In school they were taught to be silent and obedient. Many are illiterate, although their mentors––nurses, midwives and doctors––have to be able to read. Dr Najafizada told us of a CHW who is known as “the illiterate doctor” in Bamyan. She won an award for her services and then insisted on a school being built in her village.

In some ways it is to the advantage of these volunteers to keep a low profile (because prominent women are vulnerable to attack––the Taliban sees them as a threat and so threatens them). CHWs “keep calm and do their work.” They operate with a certain amount of freedom; women in the Afghan cities, with a “higher bride price,” are generally more oppressed than country women.

Volunteering is a new concept in Afghanistan, although the “birth attendant” (the dai) was a traditional figure in village life. There is little privacy or confidentiality in these communities of 100-400 souls. Nowadays, though, they nearly all have cellphones.

A photo I took at last Thursday's meeting

Education in fragile countries

Thursday Feb. 27th, I went to hear a “Conversation” at the The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat on Sussex Drive. The conversation was called Education at the Margins: Reaching Children in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States.

Here's a summary of the notes I took; I've been asked to report back to the Ottawa-CFUW UWHAW group later this week. Only three UWHAW members were at the event but the others are bound to be interested. I'm restricting my report to the points relevant to Afghanistan, though several other parts of the world were mentioned during the discussion.

A force for transformation

The event was introduced by Khalil Shariff, CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation: "The Aga Khan said this morning [on Parliament Hill in Ottawa] that education has a great transformative potential and is a force for pluralism and peace, especially in an environment of conflict."

Lois Brown, M.P., mentioned in her speech at the event that the P.M. had just signed a "protocol of understanding" with the Aga Khan. She said, “Canada has been among the top donors to Afghanistan, and education remains one of Canada’s largest sectors of investment in the country. It accounts for 25 percent of our development budget there."

Sharif Ghalib

Diane Jacovella, Vice-President, Multilateral and Global Programs at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, initiated the panel’s conversation by asking Sharif Ghalib, Senior Political Advisor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Afghanistan, to speak first.

"The importance of education is immeasurable," he said. "It is a vital tool for unlocking potential and for the evolution of mankind. Over 60% of Afghanistan’s population is made up of girls and women under the age of 30, who face overwhelming challenges." He said that education is "a powerful force for transformation that has an immense effect on improving health and gender equality and enabling peace." In 2001 less than a million children––and no girls!––went to school. Over 10 million children are now in school in Afghanistan, 41% of them girls, and this is a “prerequisite for peace.”

Investment in the future

Alice Albright

Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education said that the work of the Afghanistan government has been “truly heroic.” Teaching people to read will reduce extreme poverty by 12% in fragile countries, therefore governments should invest in education. Education teaches people that there are other ways to interact than with violence. She said that the government of Afghanistan “needs no reminder” of the importance of education for girls. She was there last summer and says that the international community “cannot leave” now, but did complain of what she called “turfiness” (i.e. a tendency to say: Keep off my turf!) among the NGOs. This must change.

Sharif Ghalib knows that there are long-term repercussions to what we do now. He felt that the more the Afghan people can get an education, the smaller the likelihood of insurgency. In some of the remote areas with a lack of access to schooling the population is “totally gripped by despair” and this provides fertile ground for terrorists to recruit their suicide bombers.

David Morley

David Morley, President of UNICEF Canada, believes that schools can be peace building institutions. (But he has visited a Taliban controlled area [of Pakistan] and seen the ruins of many schools there.) UNICEF feels that there has to be consideration of people’s future livelihoods as well.

Protecting the girls at school

In her speech, Lois Brown said that quality education for children in safe and secure schools is “a building block we cannot afford to ignore.”

Diane Jacovella asked what could be done about the safety and security of children going to school in Afghanistan.

Sharif Ghalib spoke of his country's “gloomy past.” Insurgency lingers; low-intensity fighting has never gone away and takes its toll on basic services. There are limits as to where you can build new houses and schools. However, the international community has come to the rescue, and Afghanistan has benefitted from global solidarity and the long held consensus that things must change.

Alice Albright pointed out that we need to work with the parents to make them see the point of their children’s education, especially if there’s a choice between sending their children to school and sending them to work. But you also need a proper infrastructure, with schools not too far to reach on foot, with adequate washroom facilities for girls, security from harassment, etc. The GPE will help to fund these things. 

Structure and planning

David Morley recently met a Syrian refugee girl who had forgotten how to read. UNICEF has initiated the “No Lost Generation” campaign, also relevant to Afghanistan. He also spoke about the choice of a curriculum being "highly political." He added that there’s a need for both “hardware and software” in education, i.e. investment in teacher training as well as in the buildings. Secondary (“quality education”) as well as primary education in these countries has to be a shared goal.

Sharif Ghalib told us that the Afghanistan government is now insisting on a nationwide education system with a common curriculum.

Alice Albright pointed out that what you don’t measure you can’t manage. There needs to be an investment in tools that define the target outcomes and in data management. This is the new focus of the GPE. She said that the focus in future has to be on tertiary education, and in general there must be a “holistic approach.” 

Diane Jacovella, summing up, said that we need to be ambitious, we need to protect children, we need to foster a true partnership between all the players, we need to shift the outcomes and measure what we do.