Dare to educate Afghan girls Shabana BasijRasikh
when I was 11 I remember waking up one
morning to the sound of joy in my house
my father was listening to BBC news on
his a small gray radio there was a big
smile on his face which was unusual then
because the news mostly depressed him
the Taliban are gone my father shouted I
didn’t know what it meant but I could
see that my father was very very happy
you can go to a real school now he said
a morning that I will never forget a
real school you see I was six when
Taliban took over Afghanistan and made
it illegal for girls to go to school so
for the next five years I dressed as a
boy to escort my older sister who was no
longer allowed to be outside alone to a
secret school it was the only way we
both could be educated each day we took
a different route so that no one would
suspect where we were going we would
cover our books in grocery bags so it
would seem we were just out shopping the
school was in a house more than 100 of
us packed in one small living room it
was cozy in winter but extremely hot in
summer we all knew we were risking our
lives the teacher the students and our
parents from time to time of school
would suddenly be canceled for a week
because Taliban were suspicious we
always wondered what they knew about us
why are we being followed do they know
where we live we were scared
but still school was where we wanted to
be
I was very lucky to grow up in a family
where education was priced and daughters
were treasure my grandfather was
extraordinary man for his time a total
maverick from a remote province of
Afghanistan he insisted that his
daughter my mom go to school and for
that he was disowned by his father but
my educated mother became a teacher
there she is she retired two years ago
only to turn our house into a school for
girls and woman in our neighborhood and
my father that’s him
he was the first ever in his family to
receive an education there was no
question that his children will receive
an education including his daughters
despite the Taliban despite the risks to
him there was greater risk in not
educating his children during Taliban
years I remember there were times I
would get so frustrated by our life and
always being scared and not seeing a
future I would want to quit but my
father he would say listen my daughter
you can lose everything you own in your
life your money can be stolen you can be
forced to leave your home during a war
but the one thing that will always
remain with you is what is here and if
we have to sell our blood to pay your
school fees we will so do you still not
want to continue
today I’m 22 I was raised in a country
that has been destroyed by decades of
war
fewer than 6% of women my age have made
it beyond high school and had my family
not been so committed to my education I
would be one of them instead I stand
here a proud graduate of Middlebury
College
when I returned to Afghanistan my
grandfather the one exiled from his home
for daring to educate his daughters was
among the first to congratulate me
he not only brags about my college
degree but also that I was the first
woman and that I am the first woman to
drive him through the streets of Kabul
my family believes in me I dream big but
my family dreams even bigger for me
that’s why I’m a global ambassador for
10 times 10 a global campaign to educate
women that’s why I co-founded Sola the
first and perhaps only boarding school
for girls in Afghanistan a country where
it’s still risky for girls to go to
school the exciting thing is that I see
students at my school with ambition
grabbing an opportunity and I see their
parents and their fathers who like my
own advocate for them despite and even
in the face of daunting opposition like
Hamid that’s not his real name and I
cannot show you his face but Ahmad is
the father of one of my students less
than a month ago he and his daughter
were on their way from Sola to their
village and they literally missed being
killed by a roadside bomb by minutes as
he arrived home the phone rang a voice
warning him that if he sent his daughter
back to school they would try again
kill me now if you wish he said but I
will not ruin my daughter’s future
because of your old and backward ideas
what I’ve come to realize about ivana
son and this is something that is often
dismissed in the West that behind most
most of us who succeed is a father who
recognizes the value and his daughter
and who sees that her success is his
success it’s not to say that our mothers
aren’t key in our success in fact
they’re often the initial and convincing
negotiators of a bright future for their
daughters but in the context of a
society like in Afghanistan we must have
the support of men under the Taliban
girls who went to school numbered in
hundreds
remember it was illegal but today more
than 3 million girls are in school in
Afghanistan
Evanston looks so different from here in
America
I find that Americans see the fragility
in changes
I fear that these changes will not last
much beyond the US troops withdrawal but
when I’m back in Afghanistan when I see
the students and my school and there are
parents who advocate for them who
encourage them I see a promising future
and lasting change to me
Afghanistan is a country of hope and
boundless possibilities and every single
day the girls of Sola remind me of that
like me they are dreaming big thank you
you