Narration: Afghan girl Aila studies for her dream: "Abandoning politics" to do business and create employment opportunities for women
2024-08-16
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On August 14, 2024, local time, in Kabul, Afghanistan, a celebration was held to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US troops.
On August 15, Afghanistan welcomed the third anniversary of the complete withdrawal of US troops and the return of the Taliban to power. To celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US troops, the Afghan Taliban held a military parade at the former US military base on the 14th.
According to Reference News, citing Agence France-Presse, after ending a 20-year insurgency, the Taliban regime has consolidated its control over Afghanistan in the past three years. Zhu Yongbiao, a professor at the Belt and Road Research Center and Afghanistan Research Center of Lanzhou University, pointed out to Upward View News that, in general, its performance is better than the international community imagined, and it can be said that it barely passed. However, there are still many areas for improvement. Zhu Yongbiao mentioned that in society, there have been no major changes in some social policies, especially restrictions on women's rights to education and work. Behind this, Zhu Yongbiao believes that the Taliban's political stance is relatively conservative and hopes to use Islamic law and Islamic values as the basis for governing the country. Therefore, the above situation is difficult to change in the short term, and external pressure may only have a counterproductive effect.
The latest data released by UNESCO on August 15 showed that at least 1.4 million Afghan girls have been deprived of education since the Taliban came to power in September 2021. "If the girls who had already dropped out of school before the ban was implemented are included, there are currently about 2.5 million girls in Afghanistan who are deprived of their right to education, accounting for 80% of Afghan school-age girls," UNESCO said.
The data for Afghanistan's higher education is equally worrying, with the number of university students having fallen by half since 2021.
Afghanistan is located in the inland area of Central Asia, with a population of about 41.13 million. After more than 40 years of war, Afghanistan's transportation, communication, industry, education and agricultural infrastructure have been severely damaged, and economic development is difficult. It is one of the least developed countries in the world.
For 19-year-old Afghan girl Ella, leaving is her only option for better learning opportunities.
Ella is from Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan and now lives in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Before the fall of the former Afghan government, Ella's father worked in the army and her mother was an obstetrician in a public hospital. After the Taliban came back to power, Ella's parents were worried that their identity would be exposed when they were looking for a job, so they moved the family to Islamabad, Pakistan.
Al Jazeera reported in July this year that there are nearly 3 million Afghans living in Pakistan, of which 2.4 million have some form of legal documents. Among those with legal documents, nearly 1.5 million have proof of residence cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and another 800,000 have Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by the Pakistani government's Home Affairs Administration.
This year is the third year that Ella has lived in Pakistan. She and her second sister Amy are currently working as English teachers in a language school. The family of five relies on the income of the two sisters to make ends meet. In an interview with The Paper (www.thepaper.cn), Ella said that three years ago her dream was to become a politician and she had planned to major in political science in college. Now, she has basically given up hope of becoming a politician, but hopes to apply for an ideal scholarship program as soon as possible to study business management abroad and use her knowledge and skills to help women get out of economic difficulties.
The latest report released by UN Women on August 13 shows that Afghan women have disappeared from public life since August 2021. So far, no woman in Afghanistan has held a politically influential leadership position at the national or provincial level.
Here is Ella's story
get away
On the eve of August 15, 2021, Afghanistan was in great chaos and panic. Many people around me were already trying to find a way out. My parents had worked in the relevant departments of the previous government, so they would definitely not be able to stay in their original positions or find a satisfactory job in the local area after the Taliban came to power. In desperation, we had to leave.
In fact, Pakistan was not our first choice. We had considered other countries such as Turkey and tried many methods, but our efforts failed because all foreign embassies in Kabul were closed. Then, my father found a middleman who was said to be able to help with visas. This middleman told us that we had to pay money before we could get a visa. We knew nothing about these people. We had no idea whether they would run away after getting the money. More than two months later, we got a visa to Pakistan.
There are five people in my family, so we couldn't go to Pakistan together. My father, my second sister and I settled down in Islamabad first, and then went to Afghanistan to pick up my mother and eldest sister. On the day we left Afghanistan, we took a taxi to the border, where thousands of people gathered, all submitting visa documents to the Taliban and relevant officials of the Pakistani government. That day, my family and I waited in line for more than four hours before we passed through the customs. Although Afghans can come to Pakistan, they still have to face the problem of visa renewal. Many of us cannot extend our visas or return to Afghanistan. Now, the Pakistani police are arresting Afghans who do not have visas.
Language was the biggest challenge I faced when I came to Pakistan. At first, I didn't know any Urdu and could only communicate in English. Of course, many people were very friendly, but it was more troublesome to meet some people who didn't understand English or didn't like to communicate in English. They would ignore me or even laugh at my English. If the other party really ignored me, I would communicate with them in another way. Of course, I have been here for three years and I am used to these things. Now I occasionally communicate with locals in Urdu, but if the other party knows English, I still prefer to talk to them in English.
Making a living
The university entrance exam in Afghanistan requires English. In order to get into university and realize my dream of becoming a politician, I spent a lot of time learning English. After the Taliban came back to power, girls were deprived of the opportunity to receive secondary education due to the ban. I wanted to get better learning opportunities abroad. Before leaving Afghanistan, I also insisted on preparing for the IELTS test.
After staying in Pakistan for a few months, I decided to find a job to make a living, so I went to the language school where I work now for an interview. The supervisor thought that I had received education and had a high level of English, and most of the students here were Afghan immigrants or refugees, so I was a suitable candidate for this job. I always feel that I am very lucky to have found such a good job.
At the beginning, I was under a lot of pressure because I had no teaching experience and I could only learn while teaching. I would make a study schedule based on the textbook and the students' actual level and teach them according to the plan. The content of the class included English grammar, vocabulary and oral English. After the class, I would assign homework and the students would present their homework in the next class. Most of the time, students would learn how to have conversations in English in class because they wanted to improve their oral English.
My working hours are relatively fixed. I have to teach four hours a day. I don't have classes on weekends, but I occasionally have to help students arrange language tests. Although the class time doesn't seem to be much, preparing lessons and correcting homework take up a lot of my time. After get off work, I also need to prepare for the TOEFL test, which is why I have very little time for entertainment. At most, I will go to the nearby park on weekends to hang out and exercise.
In Pakistan, I saw many girls who could study and work normally. When I was in the classroom and saw Afghan students under the podium, I always asked myself these questions: Why are only Afghan women facing the problem of not being able to study? Why can't we have the basic rights to study and work? Why do we become immigrants?
ideal
This is my third year living in Pakistan. I want to study in the United States, so the most urgent thing is to prepare for TOEFL and get a good score. I spend three to four hours a day studying English by myself. No one teaches me how to take the TOEFL, so I will find some videos on YouTube.
My oldest sister got sick when she was six years old, and the sequelae caused her to lose her ability to speak and hear. She has a talent for painting and likes children, so now she teaches children to paint for free at school. My father is old and can't go out to work, so my mother is responsible for doing housework and taking care of my oldest sister, and occasionally takes cleaning jobs to supplement the family income. My second sister Amy and I teach English at this language school together, and she also wants to study abroad. Our income not only supports the family's food, clothing and daily expenses, but also needs to save some for future study abroad.
I have some classmates or friends around me who can seek asylum in the United States, and their families work for the US government. However, most of my classmates cannot continue to go to school after 2021, and can only get engaged or married with men arranged by their parents. I have a good friend who studies very hard, and she got engaged not long ago. She told me that she had no chance to study and could only stay at home, so the only option left was marriage.
Considering the current situation of women, Afghanistan does need many female leaders. However, when women are deprived of their right to education, how can we have the right to become politicians? How can we have the right to participate in politics?
Before, my dream was to become a politician. Now, I think this dream is impossible to achieve. We don't even have the right to study, let alone participate in politics, which is why I want to apply for business management. Studying business management will help me become financially independent and provide employment opportunities for women, especially those who have a lower social status and have to submit to others. I want to share this knowledge with other women in the world, not just Afghan women.
Huang Yuehan, reporter of The Paper
(This article is from The Paper. For more original information, please download the "The Paper" APP)
