Girls hungry for education in Afghanistan

Updated September 1, 2010 12:22:21

Access to a primary education for all children is one of the UN's goals for 2015.

In Afghanistan, going to school for girls is a struggle, sometimes downright dangerous. Dr Sakeena Yacoobi once ran 'secret schools' for girls during Taliban rule, and founded the Afghan Institute of Learning in 1995.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Sakeena Yacoobi, executive director at the Afghan Institute of Learning in Kabul

YACOOBI: The objective of the organisation is to try to reach out for the women and children in Afghanistan especially that for 30 years Afghan women has not been able to get education, so our objective was to try to educate the women and girls. So we are trying to set up schools and also women learning centre. Our idea is to start from literacy program and then go to different levels of education according to the needs of the people and different levels are getting involved in political arena, they are getting involved and being hired in different position in the governmental official and non-government official, but there is still the issue that people are really not educated, people are really rigid in the area of religion and people are really against this kind of system, so they are there but for 30 years, women have not been able to get out of their houses, but now they are improving, they are in job arena, they are really seeking job, they are working.

LAM: And, of course, every region is different. Women and girls are better treated in some areas than others. What is the government doing to make it better for girls in the regions that are more conservative, that are more patriarchal?

YACOOBI: Well, the government is trying to work with the different organisations, try to educate the girls and women, they provide education as a whole for public, but also working side by side with the government. For example, our organisation is working in the area that there is not education available, in villages. We are setting up a school, setting up women learning centre that we reach for the one that are unreachable, but it is hard. Security is a big issue to travel to these areas, so we are trying to get those area, but it is very tough, but still we have a long way to go, yes.

LAM: The American forces are scheduled to pull out of Afghanistan by the middle of next year. Are you concerned then that the situation might deteriorate where allowing girls to go to school is concerned?

YACOOBI: I think, I hope that they don't fall out, because the security, especially the women's security is depend on their NATO allies, the reason that they need to depend on the NATO allies, because right now in Afghanistan we don't have our soldier are not trained our government is not able to take care of our security, so I think to leave Afghan people right now in that kind of limbo, it is very hard and I hope that for the few years that the NATO allies stay and help the people of Afghanistan. If the women's rights, the human rights, the issue is not been taking care, if gender equality is not been taken care, women's rights, human rights issues are not being taken care, it equal gender equality is not being taken care, so Afghanistan is not going to have a security and there is not going a security and there is not going to peace in Afghanistan. We have a long way to go, but we need time.

LAM: There was a time when you had to run schools in a clandestine manner, you had to run these so-called secret schools in Afghanistan. Can you tell us a little bit about that time?

YACOOBI: Yes, according to the request of the community, they come and request assistance from me and we had underground school. We have about 80 schoolteachers and the students from First Grade to Eighth Grade and today I can tell you that those students are going to university, they are being a doctor, they are being engineer. This was in different province of Afghanistan. We were working five province underground and those students right now are getting higher education and in Afghanistan, for infrastructure needs, higher education and today they are getting it so I am very proud of them.

LAM: Afghanistan, of course, is a very patriarchal society. But do you find that more fathers are willing to get their girls go to school now or not?

YACOOBI: Absolutely, that is one thing that I am glad you asked the question. People of Afghanistan, they are starving for education, they want their children to go to school, especially their girls, they really want to. Because they saw what happen to the civil society, what happened to the people of Afghanistan, because of ignorance, because of not having education. So people really see that what happened to the country. As a result, every father, every mother, wants their children to go to school, but at the same time, you could see that they are concerned about their security. If you send your child to school, you want that child to go back to school and come back home safe. They love their children to go to education. They really work very hard for that, but security is the biggest issue right now in Afghanistan. They are tired of war, they do not want the war and it means that they are resenting any group against the government, against the people of Afghanistan. So they are resenting it very strongly because people wants peace, people are tired of war.