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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Afghan-American Woman Returns to Teach Literacy |
| 2004-06-19 |
| From MSNBC Nasrine Gross is an Afghan-American woman, back home in her native land, determined to change an enduring legacy of the Taliban regime. She’s trying to teach basic reading and writing to Afghanistan’s women. The literacy rate here is among the lowest in the world at just 10 percent. "When you have that staggering rate of illiteracy, you have a problem with both men and women accepting the participation of women in society," Gross said. .... Some of her most important work, the literacy programs, takes place in the dark musty basement of a compound on the edge of the capital. Gross targets Kabul’s poorest areas, because as she put it, "this is where there is not much education, there are not many facilities, so this is where the need is the greatest." .... Class has just started and the students range in age from 30 to about 75, according to Gross. The students are people who have never been to school before, who don’t have a job, but Gross insisted, "they are all thirsty to learn." One requirement for the class is that husbands and wives, or women with a male relative attend together. It reinforces the idea that men and women are starting at the same place, and trying to accomplish the same goal as equals. .... Many young women now go to school. You can see crowds of female students leaving afternoon classes and walking the campus of Kabul University. ... But even on campus, many women still wear the burka. Across the capital, and especially beyond the main cities, the burka, the most visible symbol of how women live their lives in fear here, is still extremely common. ... Health care for women is so poor that one mother dies in child birth every 30 minutes. ... Gross gave up a good life in suburban Virginia and decided to stay here in Afghanistan to help the country’s women try to achieve a place of equality and dignity in this society. "Afghanistan’s poverty and backwardness are unimaginable in America," she insisted. "How can I not care about that? I have been lucky to live in America for 30 years in a culture of peace. And if I can help even one iota, that is very meaningful to me," she said. Her long-term goal is to see the country create opportunities for women to learn skills, find work, and take care of themselves. She hopes to see women here take a much more prominent role in rebuilding the country. A shorter term goal is to see women register and then vote in national elections planned for September. But the first step, she said, is basic literacy. In the classroom, her students almost worship her. She admonishes them to take education seriously, work hard, be patient, and the results will come. Gross said that her dream for her female students is that one day, "they can read their rights in the constitution." |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |