By: Arif Wafayee
Translated by: Mohammad Sakhi Rezaie
A number of women and girls in Lalwasarjangle district, Ghor have decided to open a new window of hope for those affected by the Taliban education, work and free movement ban on women. About 50 women and girls, including an array of different women from different social groups formed the “Village Women and Girls Network” to provide voluntary consulting services on education, educational consultancy, literary activities, and identifying employment opportunities. A number of the founders of the association who do not want to be mentioned in the report tell the Silk Way Weekly the network was expanding yet and tries to cover educated women and girls and educated youth. “We are ready for a long struggle and in addition to stay together, we try to recruit active women and girls and discuss how we can overcome the current challenges facing women and girls in Afghanistan”, they say.
The members of the association include educated women and girls, school girls, women who have lost their jobs and small businesses and athletes. One of the members of the association who sought anonymity say “Women from different places have formed the group. The main goal of our network is to exchange ideas, identifying and sharing scholarships links and sharing good information in the group.”
The members of the Village Women and Girls Network say they usually work in social media and sometimes they meet face to face. One of the members of the network says no one knows about the identities of the members except themselves. She adds “Women and girls go through the worst days of their lives in Afghanistan these days. We are jailed at home. We all only think about flying behind the closed doors.” She says.
One of the other members of the network expressing her concerns about the grave situation of the women and girls in Lalwasarjangal say: “After the collapse of the republic, the situation dramatically changed here and went from bad to worse.” Although women and girls faced many challenges here after the Taliban takeover the situation went from bad to worse. “Girls are deprived of education, work and civil freedoms here.” She states. In the current situation, girls are forced to marry and they face domestic violence.” According to her, girls and women in Lalwasarjangal are hopeless now. Describing dark the women and girls’ situation in Lalwasarjagal district, she says “Girls only breathe. These girls once dreamed about flying but they even can not decide about their dressing code now. Such a situation is intolerable for the girls now.” She denotes.
Members of the Village Women and girls Network say to encounter discrimination and visible and invisible violence against women as an increase in suicide rate and psychological diseases show among the girls and women in Lalwasarjabgal district. The families and the society need a unique address; and based on such a need, the Village Women and Girls Network has been found. This network provides educational and other social supports to women and girls. One of the members of the VWGN says: “Our network has female photographers, writers and poets. They share their works with each other and we have created a good environment for writing and other civil activities here.” She notes.
Launching education programs for the girls and children of Lalwasarjangal district is one of the main goals of this network. “Illiteracy is the root cause of misfortunes in our country.
Women and girls can’t defend their rights unless they are educated. We aim to educate women and girls in order to know their rights.” One of the members of the network says. She adds if women and girls could go to university, they could celebrate their success. But they only express grief at home. “When our children are graduated, we only cry! It is too difficult to tolerate such a situation.” She adds.
However, the founding members of the Village Women and Girls Network hope they contribute to decrease illiteracy among the girls. They say their educational programs run secretly due to the Taliban restrictions. One of them say ” We are four volunteer teachers. We want to have a well-informed society and we want to serve our country and nation by any means we can.” She adds. One of other girls says though teaching with limited resources and secretly is very difficult we have steadily worked. Taliban has recently warned those who run secret classes for female students. ” If Taliban know where the classes are hold, they come and disturb them. As a result, the situation is very difficult for the volunteer teachers ow.” She elaborates.
One of other members of this network, a student of grade 9 who is deprived of education due to the women education ban, has decided to educate other girls. “I have secret class since last winter and teach students for one hour every day. I wan to work as an educator because it is very needed in our society.” She states. She has voluntarily taught students since 2022. “I serve the society as a young member whish I was repeatedly told in the past that we are the hope for future of our country. Education gives me hope and strength.” She resonates.” She says when she sees the progress of her students, she concludes there will be a brighter future before them. “I would teach even if I have one student in my class and will do anything to serve the people.” She argues.
Lalwasarjangal has a dry and cold weather, but its girls are more interested in education than the girls of other districts. It had the most students for entrance exam during the republic government period. However, now, the girls of Lalwasarjangal only shall count on each other on education and this has caused them to forge their capacity and capacity to change the fate of women and girls in this district.
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