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July 10, 2007
Don't Let More Girls Die Trying to Learn to Read
If you listened to the the current US administration, you'd think Afghanistan is a great place to live if you're female. You'd think the Taliban is a thing of the past and that safety and stability has been flung out over the nation. You'd be sorely mistaken.
How'd you like to be the target of random acts of violence because you dared to be female and a student? How'd you like to watch as thugs murder your sister as you are leaving school with her?
Welcome to the new Afghanistan. Where there's money for roads, but not for schools. Where to decide to learn means accepting the very real possibility that you've made yourself a target.
"Education in Afghanistan: A harrowing choice," by Barry Bearak in today's International Herald Tribune.
Shir Agha, whose neice was murdered on the steps of her school, said the following:
"We have a saying that if you go to school, you can find yourself, and if you can find yourself, you can find God," he said proudly. "But for a child to attend school, there must be security. Who supplies that security?"Where indeed. Perhaps instead of trying to build a client state in Iraq, the US military should be transferred to Afghanistan where there is real need for some plain and simple security...
article found via UN Wire
Posted by cj at July 10, 2007 10:19 PM
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