Shogofa at an event in Massachusetts in April 2011.

Editor’s Note: Through our Pax Populi Educational Outreach program, in September 2010 Applied Ethics arranged to bring Shogofa to the United States to study at Salem State University.  Our organization’s intent was to support a one-year program.  Shogofa, however, studied for three semesters at Salem State until, in December 2011, she returned to Afghanistan due to a serious illness in her family.  Shogofa is hoping to return to the US to complete her bachelor’s degree. If individuals or organizations would like to support Shogofa’s hopes to continue her studies, please contact info@appliedethics.org.
Pax.

I Believe In Education for Afghan Women’s Future

I believe in the equality of women.  All women, all over the world, hold up half the sky.  But in Afghanistan, women are not equal partners to men.  Consider that 85 percent of Afghan women are illiterate because they are denied proper education.

I grew up as the youngest of five children. My life was filled with a passion for learning.  My mother was the principal of a girl’s high school.  She filled our house with books and made it beautiful by teaching my two brothers, two sisters and me.  She even advanced my father’s education.  As a result, one of my brothers is a doctor, and the other is an engineer.  Both my sisters have graduated from university.

My mother was totally dedicated to our education.  When our family experienced financial difficulty, my mother sold her jewellery to buy books for my brother.

Too Dangerous To Study

In 1996, when I was nine years old, the Taliban took control of the government, and education for girls stopped.  I didn’t know what was going on, but I could tell that my mother was worried about our education when she began teaching my sisters and me math and literature at home.

Because she didn’t know English, I studied English with a tutor.  I remember one day the Taliban saw me when I was going to my English class with books under my burqa. They tried to follow me. That was when I realized how dangerous it was both for girls who wanted an education, but also for those who took the chance of teaching them.

I could not understand why men could be educated, but not women.  I was discouraged and scared.  But my mother did not give up; she continued with our lessons at home in spite of the risks.

After the Taliban rule ended in 2001, women began to advance, but still there was a big gap between the quality of education for women and men.  I was the only one in my family whose education was incomplete. After I graduated from high school, I had a chance to attend a private university in Kabul.

This was the first time I would be away from home. As I left for Kabul, my mother said that when I was finished with my studies, all of her responsibilities will have been fulfilled. She said I was the only one of her children she was worried about.  Little did I know that it was the last time I would see her alive.  She was killed in a car accident in 2008.  Suddenly, I was alone with the responsibility to build my education and a future.

The world stopped

It was a total shock. The world stopped.  It was hard to accept the reality of losing the most valuable person in my life. I stopped doing everything.  Life meant nothing without her.  I was living without a reason for being and no hope. I didn’t study.

My father encouraged me to try to complete my mother’s wish and finish my education.  When he took me back to Kabul to continue my studies, he reminded me how my mother had told me she wanted me to graduate and become a lawyer. He told me that he knew one day I would complete my mother’s wish.  He said, “I’m so proud of you.”

With the memory of my mother and the support of my father, my determination to continue my education increased, and I studied for one year at the School of Leadership Afghanistan- to improve my English.  The founders of SOLA helped me to build my confidence when I had almost given up.  They showed me how I could help my country’s people by learning to speak up, and that I could be a good example for other women.

And that is how on Sept. 3, 2010, I found myself stepping through the gates at Boston’s Logan international airport and being welcomed by my host parents and the leader of the Pax Populi Education Outreach program, through which I had been given the opportunity to pursue my education at Salem State University in Massachusetts

American Scholarship

This was to be my first time travelling alone and I would be the first person from my family to study outside Afghanistan.  It took me two months to convince my family to let me go to America to study. This experience made me realize that if we want to do something in life, we have to work hard because our dreams do not come easily.

I spent over a year in the U.S., not only studying political science, but telling Americans about my country. I gave speeches about Afghan women and how hard they work and how brave and strong they are. I told them about the hidden aspects of Afghan culture, food and customs. It was interesting for them to learn about Afghan people.

After a year away, my brother called to tell me to come home soon.  I was excited to return home, but at the same time very troubled to learn that my father was gravely ill.

I spent two months at home with my father.  Once again he told me, “Try to finish your studies. I am ok. I am so proud of you. You finished a year of study there. I am sure your mother would be proud of you. I know one day my daughter will be a very important person and help her country.”

It is hard for me to explain my feelings about losing my father and being alone again. I have promised myself that I will keep my parents’ dreams alive and somehow complete my studies. I have come a very long way and worked very hard to reach my goals. I don’t want to have wasted my year and a half studying in the U.S.

Mazar-e-Sharif

I am now back home in northern Afghanistan and now I study by myself.  I want to return to America to finish my remaining two and a half years of study. I want to help my people, especially women, through education. I want to open a library for women and a school in my city of Mazar-e-Sharif one day. I have seen in my country only years of war, blood and dead bodies, and the hopelessness and discrimination against women. I have heard only the crying of women and seen them begging on the street.

I keep asking myself: when will Afghan women be treated as human beings? When will Afghan men stop killing and selling them? Afghan women have been through so much emotional and psychological stress. Nonetheless, they keep going. I want to help women but this is not my only goal. I want to see my country peaceful and educated, and see men women work together to bring peace to Afghanistan.

By Shogofa