Global Women's Rights - Stories of Our Lives
Written by Renee Barker
An excerpt from the article:
You are the Executive Director of an American-based organization, Sahar, which provides women and girls with access to education through underground classes. We will hear more about Sahar in a few weeks. Can you begin by giving my readers insight into what Afghan women are going through today?
I feel like there isn’t much awareness about what women are going through right now because the media has decided not to cover stories about Afghanistan anymore. At least the stories that really matter, like these, like the one you’re working on. Talking to real people, the real experiences of women. The fact that these women are facing the most challenging circumstances yet still show up to these underground classes at Sahar. They know if they’re caught, they can be arrested, they can be tortured, they could even be killed, but they still show up because that’s how important education is to them. That’s how important supporting their families is to them.
This makes me emotional because I am from Afghanistan, and the cause that I work for is very personal to me. Imagine a 16-year-old girl thinking she doesn’t matter. But she still wishes that she did. And then to find that she shows up for these classes, knowing anything could happen to her. And the teachers who teach these classes are also women. We have female teachers for all of our programs. And these teachers know that if the Taliban finds out about them educating other girls, they can be arrested. There are plenty of stories of women’s rights activists who are being arrested, tortured, and killed. The fact that these women, these teachers, are still showing up for themselves and for their students is resilience. It’s activism. It’s resistance. And they know they could be caught, yet they still take the risk and show up. That’s how strong they are. These women know that anything could happen to them any day. They still show up. And that’s really powerful.