The girls I taught in Kabul were Afghanistan's future. The Taliban has taken that away
The girls I taught in Kabul were Afghanistans future. The Taliban has taken that away
Shikiba
The school I worked in has been forced to close. Our dreams are shattered and we urge you, people of the west, to help. I am a woman living in Kabul and I am a teacher. Until eight months ago, I was one of the staff at The City of Knowledge (COK), an educational centre that helped women go to university and pursue the careers of their choice. Through my work, I witnessed the ambition and hope of many women in my country. Since the Taliban came back, our life has drastically changed. We are like moving bodies without souls. Our dreams, and the knowledge we could have had, are shattered.
I always believed history was a progression, but I have seen in the past few months my countrys rapid regression to the middle ages. Before, women and girls were still taking tiny steps towards a better future. Now, just going to school has become an unattainable dream for hundreds of thousands of them. Our lives were far from perfect before the Taliban returned to power. Every day my young students risked their lives to get to schools and tuition centres like ours, which were targets in the war. But the moment the girls entered the school, they bloomed despite the bloody attacks outside and a dire economic and security situation, I could see their hopes for fruitful careers as doctors, engineers and lawyers. But with just a stroke of his pen, US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the US peace agreement with the Taliban, threw us into a dark pit of ignorance, terror and brutality within a matter of hours.
A few months ago, the Taliban pledged to reopen girls schools. Unsurprisingly, they are now backtracking on that commitment. Women cannot work or leave their homes without a burqa, they cannot laugh, wear makeup or heeled shoes, they cannot be with a man who is not their mahram (father, brother, husband or son). They cannot go to school or university.
As a teacher, I dreamed that my students would become Afghanistans future doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, artists and technical experts, inspiring countless others to do the same. With the Taliban once again in complete control of our country, our school has been forced to close. Many of my fellow teachers have fled our country, fearing for their lives. I remember telling my students the news. Some of them said: Is this not our right? Is it a crime to seek education? For gods sake, billionaires are going into outer space and we are not even allowed to attend a school! The west has played a horrible game with our country over the decades. I think it is the biggest crime against humanity to never let a country progress. The US and its allies handed our already battered motherland over to a bunch of criminals and terrorists, and it is women and girls who are paying the price now.
. . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/11/girls-kabul-afghanistan-taliban-school-close
secondwind
(16,903 posts)but I don't feel the "US handed [them] over to a bunch of criminals and terrorists." There really was no GOOD choice...
niyad
(113,336 posts)Shipwack
(2,162 posts)It wasn't necessarily a good thing, but it was something that had to be done.
We ignored building up it's infrastructure so that the government had better control over it's country and could better combat the Taliban, both militarily and economically. That was a mistake.
However, it seems that the people themselves were also betrayed by a corrupt leadership. How do you fight against that? Is corruption and repression do ingrained in their society that you can't fight it? Saying that sounds elitist and bigoted, but denying that also sounds pollyannish.
HariSeldon
(455 posts)Shipwack
(2,162 posts)JI7
(89,251 posts)the education for girls started becsuse we were there.
It went away with us becsuse that's what many of the people of the country wanted.
You can't ignore religion being the problem here.
brer cat
(24,575 posts)Think of all the accomplishments missed because of misogyny.
niyad
(113,336 posts)The Unmitigated Gall
(3,819 posts)For years to come.
niyad
(113,336 posts)The Unmitigated Gall
(3,819 posts)Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
electric_blue68
(14,906 posts)and echoes some of most extreme RW misoginists here in the USA.
niyad
(113,336 posts)electric_blue68
(14,906 posts)Sorrow, and fury.
niyad
(113,336 posts)JI7
(89,251 posts)but even then it's difficult
If we help we have to defend ourselves and it means we might have to attack and innocent people could die and we are blamed for it.
The biggest problem here is religion.
It sucks for the mostly innocent women there but the problem is cultural.
Even here they blame the West for playing games. Ignoring the fact that the biggest problem is Islam preventing progress . The West even said they would fund girl's education there including paying for teachers but it's the men that oppose it.