I
n a conservative village
in eastern Afghanistan’s Laghman province,
30 women have gathered for their fourth
day of class. They are participants in a CAIsponsored literacy program.
Marzia, who is 30 years old, sits quietly at
the back of a makeshift mudbrick classroom.
She adjusts her blue burqa to sit more comfortably as she thinks about how to answer
the question, why is education so important
for women?
“We are a group of poor farmers,” she
says through a translator. “We don’t have
our own house; we don’t have electricity; we don’t have security. But now we
have education.”
Marzia wants to use her newly acquired
education to become a doctor. Her dream
14 | JOURNEY OF HOPE
is to serve women who are so often forbidden to seek medical treatment from male
doctors. Female doctors are extremely rare
in Afghanistan, even in urban areas.
Being a full-fledged doctor is a long way
off, but lofty dreams have to start somewhere. For Marzia, that starting point is
right here, in this dusty classroom, on her
fourth day of class.
Marzia’s parents were uneducated. That is
the case for most of the women in the class.
Many of their families didn’t want the women to come to school. They tried to talk them
out of it, but the women were determined.
They knew this might be their only chance.
They have only been in class for a few
days, but they already understand the
magnitude of what they are being given.
“We are part of the world now,” said
one student.
“We can help our children,” says another.
Now that these 30 women have a shot at
getting an education, they will not give it up.
Some of their families tried to forbid them
to attend, some tried to talk them out of it.
But the women come every day, despite the
resistance they face.
They will not be denied what they now
know is their right.
At the end of class, Marzia hunches over a
chalkboard. In front of her friends and classmates, in thin white letters she makes a declaration for all to see:
“I am unstoppable.”
These are the first English words she has
ever written.
q
A quiet revolution is taking place underneath our noses, and women like Marzia are
leading it. But this is not a typical revolution.
It is not a revolution against something, like
a class of people or a tyrannical leader; rather it is a revolution for something. Writer
Joseph Campbell perfectly described it
CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE