Greetings!
Maiwand Nemati contacted me a few weeks ago with a request from farmers in Lalander. A smalll dam that we had funded years ago was in need of repair and they asked that TIE contribute to the repair costs. Again, they would do all the labor. They wanted TIE to contribute to the cost of materials. We are contributing. I'll write about that later.
In the course of our correspondence i received a request from three villages in the area. They asked TIE to fund classes for girls. Lalander has two schools, one we funded that opened in 2005. Neither have classes for girls. Needless to say this was troubling news.
The budgeting process was going well until I learned they intended to hold the classes in homes, not in the schools. That would mean the girls would sit on the floor and would not receive credit from the Ministry of Education for the classes they took. I agonized over their request for an entire day.I told Maiwand that girls should be treated equally and TIE would fund classes taught in the schools but not in homes. TIE would not fund gender inequality.
My fear was that all of the villages would decline my offer and there would continue to be no classes for girls. That didn't happen. The villagers living in Balla Guzar happily accepted our offer. The others declined. Half a loaf is better than none. In this case we're beginning with a third of a loaf. As Afghans would say, the others will follow the lead of Balla Guzar, Inshallah. If they do, we will be there to help, also Inshallah.
Two days ago, the first and only classes offered to girls in Lalander opened in the lower school. Thirty girls enrolled and they are being taught by a woman teacher who didn't have a job. Maiwand sent the photos below.
Whenever there are discouraging moments such as these I am reminded of the suffragettes and Susan B Anthony. They first met in 1850. Seventy years later women in the United States were finally granted the right to vote when the 19th amendment to the constitution passed.
Susan B Anthony died before women could vote. Most of us will suffer the same fate before Afghan women come anywhere close to achieving equal rights. You and I entered on the ground floor in what is still considered to be the worst place in the world for a woman to be born. The encouraging news is that Afghan women already have the right to vote and there is a class for girls where there were none before. Another small step for women made possible by TIE.
Budd
