The story of a girl activist - Afghanistan
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Version 0 of 1. According to Newton's rule, an object stays the in same state unless a force affects it. Social phenomena have the same characteristics. I started campaigning to be a small force to change the pattern of women's lives in Afghanistan. Living in Afghanistan as a girl and observing the situation for women has made me want to affect change. Also, witnessing the effect of outspoken women on the situation has been another inspiration to start campaigning. Although girls are treated as second class citizens in my community, we should not forget that Afghanistan's situation is changing. In parallel with the changes in Afghanistan, the situation for women is getting better. <strong>Biggest challenge</strong>: Girls in our community face disrespectful cultural traditions. For instance, daughters are sometimes given to a murder victim's family as blood money. Additionally, the economical dependency of girls to their family creates a lot of issues. And girls in most parts of Afghanistan do not have access to education, which starts a series of problems. The most difficult obstacle is that women themselves accept their current situation and do not help us to help them. This is because they are illiterate and cannot think of a different life. So illiteracy is the biggest challenge for people who fight for women's rights. <strong>Proudest moment: </strong>My two friends and I took part in a culture exchange programme with three displaced boys from Helmand. We talked to them about women in Islam and they, who did not accept girls as human before, started to believe that girls should be educated. They convinced their parents to let their sisters study. My short-term goals are to improve my book club, make a public library in Dasht-e-Barchi in Kabul, major in political science and international relations and get a masters and a doctorate. My long-term goals are to join a political party, teach at Kabul university, create an association of women writers, found a political party and work as politician in the Afghanistan government. <strong>This content is brought to you by </strong><strong>Guardian Professional</strong><strong>. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the </strong><strong>Global Development Professionals Network</strong> Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |