BY HANNAH PURKEY

In print | Published March 26, 2009

Afghan women’s rights activist Suraya Pakzad spoke on Monday, March 23 at the Friends Meeting House about her work to provide women in Afghanistan with the opportunity for education. Pakzad is the director of the Voice of Women Organization, a human rights organization that seeks to improve the status of Afghan women. Through VOW, Pakzad has undertaken the task of building a social infrastructure for the sake of empowering women and achieving regional strength and stability.

In her lecture, Pakzad explained that, as a mother of six who has always lived in Afghanistan, she felt compelled to get involved in the education of young girls despite the extreme danger of doing so. “One day we were forgotten by the international community; we were the most neglected group among the world at the time of the Taliban,” Pakzad said. “After years of no one doing anything, I decided to do something myself. Because of my responsibility as a woman and as a mother, I had to start something even though I was aware that engagement in education of girls at the time was a crime and designated an illegal activity.”

She began by teaching a small group of 25 girls in her own home. The one class quickly became two, and as demand grew, she convinced her friends to teach classes as well. Eventually, over 300 girls were being taught within her school. All of this was accomplished with no financial support. All the teachers were volunteers who taught in their own homes and ran the risk of being killed or put in jail if they were caught. “In case the Taliban came, we kept a oven and a canister of gasoline in each house,” Pakzad said. “We had to always be ready to burn all of the education materials in the oven if they came because it was the only simple protection we had to defend ourselves and to deny what we were doing.”

Pakzad continued to talk about her struggle for funding and protection for her school, even after getting government certification for the organization. “There was not just one need, but many,” Pakzad said. “These women needed education, a means of income generation, legal council, psychosocial services. There were so many needs to focus on, we had to choose priorities.”
Beyond her fight to educate young girls, Pakzad has sought to increase the scope of her organization, directing her efforts towards helping educate older women and towards providing support and protection for women who have been released from jail and cannot return to their families.

“We have a beautiful constitution which says that women and men are equal, but the implementation of that beautiful paper is in the hands of the war lords and extremists and those who are creating conflict in the country,” Pakzad said. This has prevented the government from reaching standards of equality and protecting women’s rights in Afghanistan. This opposition is one of the great challenges Pakzad faces, but without funds she is not able to begin to fight back.

“We do not just have to struggle for equality,” Pakzad said. “We have to struggle to get money to struggle for equality.” This was part of the reason for Pakzad’s visit to the U.S. — to raise awareness of her organization’s efforts and the support it needs to continue.

During the lecture, Pakzad read a poem entitled “My Name is Woman” both in translation and in the original language. In both the poem and her discussion, Pakzad spoke of the personal challenges she faced with regards to her daughter’s inability to relate to her involvement in the struggle for women’s rights.

Later, Pakzad expressed the hope that she would someday be able to find a fellowship that would allow her to return to the U.S. so that she may introduce her daughter to a different culture, one that is more accepting of female leaders. “I want to show her that there are women like her mother all over the world, to change her perspective from the one she is inundated with back home,” she said.

Pakzad’s talk drew a wide variety of people, including students from local middle and high schools as well as Swarthmore students and residents. “We are really proud of how many people came,” Jennifer Cheung, one of the event’s organizers, said. “We really wanted to draw a diverse crowd, so we not only looked at Swarthmore but also at other local municipalities and other places.”

One of Cheung’s hopes in organizing the event was to allow attendees to connect to the struggles of an area that many have read about but that few have personal connections with. A number of students agreed that the intimate setting and discussion with Pakzad facilitated their understanding of issues they were only indirectly familiar with. “I can’t believe how much insight I got from this,” Nicole Bernardi ’12 said. “There is no way I could have gained it from just reading the New York Times.”

“She was just fantastic,” Julia Soper ’11 agreed. “Great way to come here and connect with someone while getting so much information … I think people were able to get precise ideas about what they can do to help.”

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