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SEEMA : WOMEN DRIVING EDUCATION IN AFGHANISTAN Like ghosts floating through the city streets of Northern Afghanistan, women disguise their identity by wearing a white or sometimes blue chadri , also known as a burka . I met one of these phantom-like women, Seema, in the town of Pul-i-Khumri . She is a Master Trainer for Aga Khan Foundation's education project that receives part of its funding from NetAid's World Schoolhouse Program. A ten-foot wall at the Teacher Training Center separates the two very different worlds that Seema lives in. Arriving to work in her white chadri , she is covered from head to toe. She removes her chadri only after the gates to the center are closed and she is safely inside. Like closing an umbrella after coming in from the rain, the chadri routine is part of life for women in this conservative city. The chadri was imposed on women when the Taliban began to gain power in 1996. Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, women still do not feel at ease walking outside their homes or workplace without the chadri . Seema greets me with beaming eyes and a shy smile, amazing me with her beauty as she uncovers her face. As a Master Trainer, she is responsible for carrying out teacher training workshops that upgrade the skills of Afghan teachers. The overall goal of this project is to increase the number of children, especially girls, entering and completing the Basic Education cycle. As a teacher and a mentor to the few female teachers in the Afghan school system, Seema's role is critical in rebuilding Afghanistan and empowering women to become active members in building a new country. The biggest challenge she faces as a Master Trainer is working with the many rural teachers that on average have a grade 6 education. She admits that it will take a lot of time and patience to improve the education system, particularly in the rural areas of Afghanistan. Inspired by her grade 5 teacher and her mother, who is also a teacher, Seema graduated from the Teacher Training Center in 1991. At the age of 20, Seema married a medical doctor. In 1999, Seema and her family had to flee to Pakistan because her husband provided medical treatment for a woman, which was unlawful under the Taliban government, and was severally beaten. For two years, Seema was a teacher in an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, a city that borders Afghanistan. Working within the constraints faced by women in rural Afghanistan, Seema is igniting the process of rebuilding Afghanistan through the revitalization of the education system.
A Conversation with SeemaWhat motivated you to become a teacher? When I was in grade 5, I had a teacher that inspired me. My mother is also a teacher. What Challenges did you have growing up? Getting to school everyday. There was an insecure bridge that I had to cross. My father would accompany me everyday. I was 20 when I graduated from the teacher training. Shortly after I graduated, I worked with my mother to update my skills in teaching. In 1999, I fled to Pakistan when the Taliban occupied Pul-i-Khumri. There I taught in Peshawar for two years and joined International Rescue Committee (IRC) as a teacher trainer for one and a half years and the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan as a teacher trainer for one year. When the training center shifted to Jalalabad, I had to resign. When did you come back to Pul-i-Khumri and when did you join AKF? In September 2002, I came back to Pul-i-Khumri and joined AKF as a master trainer in March 2003. I received four weeks of training before going out to villages to collect data for a baseline survey about the educational status in the region, including the health and educational needs of the children. Has politics affected your work? I've seen lots of suffering and fighting. A bomb blew up near my school even before the Taliban. Why did you decide to leave Afghanistan when the Taliban moved into Pul-I-Khumri? The Taliban threatened my husband because he provided medical treatment for a woman. What will be the biggest challenge in the next year and a half? I surveyed some schools where the teachers have an education level of grade 6. How are we going to train teachers with such low education? We need a lot of time in each village to improve the situation. We will have to categorize each teacher according to their education and plan the training accordingly. Perhaps the teachers that require more training should come to the training center in Pul-I-Khumri. We also need to mentor these teachers and spend more time with them in the field and encourage them to upgrade their skills. What motivates you? I have met teachers that are smart and very interested in learning. In a short time, they have made progress. This is what motivates me to continue.
An initiative of Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A
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