What does it feel like to be away from home for years and upon returning to your neighborhood finding total destruction? Not a building standing. Not even a tree. Imagine looking for your childhood home and finding only piles of rubble, with every landmark gone so that you weren't even sure if you had the right neighborhood.
Meet someone who experienced this - Fahima Vorgetts, an Afghan human rights activist and 2004 winner of the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice and a director of Women for Afghan Women.
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I had the privilege of talking with Fahima after she spoke at a girls' school in Pittsburgh's Ellis School where the students organized to help raise funds for a sister school in Afghanistan. Fahima's eyes betrayed a sorrow that pierced my soul. I asked her what it felt like to return to her country after the ravages of the Soviet occupation, Taliban rule and marauding war lords. She calmly described the devastation of Afghanistan's infrastructure. I asked how she could bear looking at the physical destruction of her country knowing what must have happened to the people of Afghanistan. Her face betrayed unspeakable pain and in an instant communicated the enormity of what she had witnessed. I began to understand her need to do something for the women, and thereby all the people of Afghanistan.
The women of Afghanistan provide a unique opportunity to affect the wider population of this tortured country. Suppressed by the terror of war, the intolerance of the Taliban towards women and the random violence of war lords, the enduring spirit of Afghan women could not be broken.
Fahima negotiated with men in various villages to support the education of girls in basic subjects. Sometimes she negotiated for the use of boys' schools during off hours. Sometimes she helped set up tent schools where students might be just as likely to be learning as chasing their tents during one of Afghanistan's frequent storms. She faced open hostility and danger but managed to convince local leaders of many towns of the value of education for girls.
Think of Fahima's schools as people-powered foreign policy. For approximately the cost of two luxury SUVs a twenty room school with bathrooms, plumbing and a generator can be built. Such a school can educate a thousand girls (and grown women) on a continuing basis. The schools also serve as meeting places for women to organize and to learn the skills needed to kick-start local economies. The impact in terms of stabilizing Afghan society is hard to quantify but easy to understand.
A few days ago, two girls were blinded in an acid attack. They were on their way to school. Apparently the attack was motivated by the Taliban intolerance of education for girls. I don't know if the girls were on their way to one of Fahima's schools or not. Regardless, the courage of people like Fahima and all the girls who risk their lives for a better future deserves our support.
Please help by recommending this diary. If you want to help directly, please contribute ideas, money or help me get the attention of Nicholas Kristof so that he might help tell Fahima's story to a wider audience. Please show the women and girls of Afghanistan that the American people care about them.