The fall of Afghanistan…
It was swift. A rout. The attempted democracy of the past two decades ended, it seemed, almost overnight.
A few days ago, I read the story of a young 25-year-old Afghan woman, a doctor working in her local hospital. As the Taliban approached closer and finally overran her city, she reluctantly bought a burqa so that, hidden, she could still make her way to the hospital to work. She said she felt diminished and small. She explained that wearing the burqa was uncomfortable, hot and she had trouble seeing through the mesh facepiece. Soon, she will likely no longer be allowed to enter the hospital to practise medicine. She will be expected to stay home.
The push that brought me to support girls’ education some 22 years ago were these very Afghan women, encumbered by medieval burqas that erase their presence in their villages and in their country.
Aside from the deep pain I feel at the renewed obliteration of human rights and women’s rights in Afghanistan, I am angry and frustrated. I want to shout at all those responsible: How dare you treat your fellow citizens in this way!
I have spent more than 20 years reading, learning, watching and seeing how girls’ education transforms societies – education that doesn’t impose the mindset of the Western world as is sometimes feared, but truly enables girls, women and communities to make their special piece of the world better, given their own context.
The benefits are obvious. Educating girls dramatically improves health outcomes, brings peace and stability to countries, increases economic outcomes and improves our chances to limit the impact of climate change. It brings new ideas and new perspectives to help us solve the major challenges that face us.
Why doesn’t everyone get it? Investing in girls’ education – requiring just a small fraction of what is spent on defence budgets around the world – will enable communities to truly have the chance to progress. And the world as a whole will be better off.
I’m mad. At times I’m overwhelmed by the stream of bad news we hear. How can we seem to be back to square one in Afghanistan? How can we have moved back years in educational attainment in so many countries because of the pandemic? Another earthquake in Haiti? A president assassinated? Add destructive fires and storms and disastrous flooding to the mix…
Have our investments in girls’ education in Afghanistan and other countries been in vain? Not on your life!
Photo: CARE Canada
Education, much like we’ve seen with the fragility of democracy even in stalwart countries like the US, is a never-ending work in progress. If education quality and participation have been increased in countries like Afghanistan for 20 years, that’s two decades of girls, boys, women and men who have gained skills, tools and confidence with which to face their new reality. You can’t erase education. You can prevent children from attending school for a time. However, ultimately, the more people are educated around the world, the harder it will be to quash their desire to learn and help themselves.
The 25-year-old Afghan doctor will still have her skills and knowledge that will surely be of benefit to those around her. Who knows what new path her life will take despite the present narrowing of her world? I’ve seen so many instances of women courageously defying the status quo in order to help their families – women who have bravely, intuitively and creatively found ways to protect their children – at almost any cost to themselves.
I write this from the comfort of my garden. Surrounded by beautiful, tall mature trees, feeling the sun and a nice breeze on my face. What luxury I have: time and space and freedom. I’m literally thousands of kilometres but figuratively a million miles from the realities in Afghanistan, Haiti and too many other countries to mention.
Anger has fuelled me to invest a large part of my life to advocate for quality education for girls in developing countries of the world. From my safe garden, I want to continue imagining and creating new ways to support these girls with our incredible 60 million girls team and with you.
I guess anger and outrage, from a place of deep caring and a belief in the incalculable value of each child’s life, will continue to be the fuel to strive to make the world a better place for the next generations.
Wanda Bedard
President, 60 million girls Foundation