Girls Education

 

“AEPO’s educational programs have changed many people’s mindsets who once believed that schools might affect girls’ Islamic beliefs.”

We have conducted a survey on 26th February 2017 in Nangarhar to assess the impact of the educational programs. We met Mr. Baz Gul a resident of Surkhrood district who lived in a distanced village of this district. He expressed his viewpoints as follows:

“I am a poor person. I have three daughters who are going to school. The elder one is in 10th grade, the second one is in 7th and the last one is in 1st grade. I help them to pursue higher education. I believed that if girls go to school, it might affect their Islamic beliefs. But, listening to the educational programs on BBC, my mind has changed regarding this issue, and I believe women form half of the human society. They should go to school and university because as men’s women’s education is of the same importance.”

Returning from Nangarhar, we had a trip to Kandahar. We met and talked to numerous people in different places of the provincial capital and Spin Boldak district. We found out that people are interested in listening to the educational programs as they have learned quite a lot of things from different educational programs and had implemented them in their lives. Ahmad Bilal a resident of 8th district of Kandahar is the great listener of the educational programs. He shares his viewpoint with us as follows:

“I learned a lot of things regarding the winter courses. I learned that we should not pass the winter vacation/ sitting still and waste our time/ just sleeping and passing it doing nothing. We should get prepared for the next year so that we do not face any trouble next year at school. Once, my father decided to stop my sister from going to school. Since I had learned from the educational programs that according to Islamic teachings seek knowledge is compulsory on both men and women, I convinced my father to let my sister go to school. I told my father if my mother is sick, will you allow a male doctor to check her up, he said no. then, I told my father if my sister and the daughters and sisters of all people do not go to school, who will become the doctor to check up female patients. My father was convinced and told my sister to continue her studies. My elder sister who does not go to school wishes that I was elder than her so that she could also go to school.”

The team stayed in Kandahar for 6 days. returning from Kandahar, we headed to Khost province and met with people in Tani, Gorbaz, Esmayil Khil and Nader ShahKot districts. We talked with people about the impact of educational programs. A woman living in Nader ShahKot district shared her viewpoint regarding the educational programs as follows:

“I am a school teacher. When I was listening to the New Home, New Life drama, Nazir’s wife, Mahjabeen was teaching literacy classes to the girls who had been left out of school. Listening to the story, I realized that the same problems existed in our village, so I established a literacy class at home teaching the girls whose parents had not let them go to school. Now, most of those girls are attending school and are studying in 5th and 6th grades. In the past, when women got a toothache, they were not allowed to go to the male dentist. Girls were not allowed to go to school or have their inheritance right. They were not even consulted regarding their marriage, and these issues were considered to be shame among the people. I believe the only thing changes people’s mindsets are the educational programs by AEPO. I think it is not sufficient yet, and more programs are needed to be broadcasted.